LIBRAIIY OF C0N(;HKSS. t\ 

Ui\ITKI):STATKS OF AMEIMCA.| 



\^ STANZAS TO 


QUEES YICTOEIA, 


AND 


othe;r po_d]MS. 

• 


BY 


SENNOIA EUBEK. 

• 1 


NEW YORK: 


FREDERIC A. BRADY, PUBLISHER, 


No. 22 ANN STREET. 


1866. 



Entered according to Act of Conjrress, in tlip year ISGG, 

By .TOIi:^ BUIiKE, 

In tlio Clerk's Office of the District Court of tlie United States for tin 
t^outhern District of New Yorlt. 



A. ALVOP.Ii, KI.EOTUOTVI'KIt ANI> I'I'.INTKR. 



r" 



PREFACE. 



• The following Poems touch, in their nearest and dearest interests, 
all orders and degrees of human beings, — all religious denominations 
and parties, — all trades, professions, and occupations of life. The 
farmer, the courtier, the peasant, and the peer, — the orator, the 
philosopher, and the poet,— kings and subjects, — priests and people, — 
governors and the governed, — theologians and politicians, — ^master and 
mistress, — man-servant and maid-servant, — Jew, Gentile, Greek, Barba- 
lian, — ^bond and free, — will find in this our little Manual of Slavery, 
not that only which is the subject and the object of abstract reflec- 
tion, but much also that is calculated to excite to an active benev- 
olence those individual and personal emotions which vibrate with 
the force of a moral electricity through all the springs of feeling in 
the heart. 

The Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Baptist, and Episcopal 
churches and congregations are especially noticed in their attitudes 
respectively towards negro slavery ; nor does the author fail to 
mention, alas ! that it should be in terms so incommensurate with 
their exemplary consistency and sterling merit, the eflbrts of the 
excellent Society of Friends in the great and glorious cause of eman- 
cipation from human bondage. 

3 



PREFACE. 



These Poems contain, moreover, in the notes and in the text, many 
salient points for ci^mmendation in oui- freemen, our women, our laws 
and institutions; and for satire, in Southern Slavery, conventions, 
fillibusterism, Georgian theology, domestic troubles, etc. Would that 
the Manual may prove to the public a soul-stirring fountain of whole- 
some and murmuring waters, — " Querulis fons garrulus undis," 

The verdict of the Public, be it favorable or otherwise, we trust 
we shall patiently abide, concluding meanwhile with the motto of 
Spenser, — 

" Goe, little Booke : thyself present, 
As child whose parent is unkent I 
And when thou art past jeopardee, 
Come tell me what was said of mee, 
And I will send more after thee.^ 



THE PUBLISHEPu 



BUKDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



SCENES m CONGRESS. 



Thou Cambrian pillar of tlie Golden State, 

The muse of Satire summons thee, though late, 

To bare thy head and heavenward lift thy hand. 

Before that dread tribunal of our land, — 

A people outraged by thy shameful brawls. 

Within the sacred precincts of those halls 

Where wisdom, truth, and equity preside, 

And law and reason flourish side by side. 

Such brawls are only worthy of the zones 

Where bears and panthers strive with picaroons, — 

Worthy the roles of those Francisco hells 

Where lust of gain with murderous riot dwells, — 

Worthy the school where blood-stained Herbert, learned 

In every vice, for civic honors yearned. 

And gained them, too; to add to our disgrace, 

The sickening horrors of his brazen face ! 

Is it for statesmen silvered o'er with age, 
In ruthless vengeance thus to fume and rage? — 
To call, in accents savage and untoward, • 

Their peer " a liar, slanderer, canting coward ?" — 
To rush -with rampant fury from their chairs 
(As beasts of prey from out their hidden lairs), 
And fight with canes, revolvers, or their fists, 
Like ruffian bullies in our prize-fight lists ; 
5 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Or creep with velvet footsteps like an ounce, 
And, unawares, upon their victims pounce ? 
Ye Gods! Not thus did Jischincs contend ; 
Not thus Demosthenes, to gain his end. 
To clicckmate monarchs, or to win a crown. 
Of Athens worthy — worthy his renown ; 
Not thus contended Bacori with his peers. 
Or the whole crew of slanderous garreteers ! 

When Tally's thunder burst o'er Piso's head, 
And flash on flash his fiery lightnings sped, 
They showed how truth and honor were at strife 
In Piso's public and his private life ; 
Showed him in both^ a tyrant, fool, poltroon, 
A swinish sot, a robber and buftbon. 
Nor less, when Antony and Catiline 
Their country's freedom sought to undermine. 
The patriot statesman winged his words of wrath. 
With tones prophetic, o'er their traitorous path, — 
Yet not from private malice sought their doom, 
But as the common enemies of Rome. 

From Chatham's lips more graceful satire hoar. 
In whispering, " Gentle shepherd, tell me where !" 
Or learn from Grattan's most impassioned tongue 
To be severe, and yet to do no wrong. 

From Brougham take the thunder and the nod, 
The forked lightning and the scorpion rod, 
The barb, the lash, the nettle, and the thorn, 
The victim skulking from his withering scorn, 
The quivering uauscle and the neck awry, 
The conjuring spectre in his glaring eye, 
Snake-like as cholera; while, with sovereign power, 
G 



SCENES IN CONGRESS. 



He scales the rampart and assaults the tower — 

The tower of life — and cries, This soul is mine, 

Nor soul or body shall I e'er resign, 

Till I have made them both subserve the cause 

Of truth and justice, liberty and laws ! 

Yet Brougham never dealt destructive blows. 

With arms unchartered, on his bitterest foes. 

And who confesses not that perfect hit, 

Of venomed satire from O'Connell's wit. 

Pronouncing D'Israeli to have mourned his loss. 

Like his ancestral type — the thief upon the cross ? 

Yea, learn from Statesmen who are all our own, 
Clay, Benton, Webster, Pinckney, and Calhoun, 
To be sarcastic ; yet from reverence, fear 
To wound or jar a Senatorial ear. 
Ah me ! from Polyglotts of camps and mines, 
'Tis hard to learn a language that refines 
The want of culture in one's early life. 
With social rules is war unto the knife. 



" But G. from poverty has waxen rich !" 

What, then, but that it aggravates his itch, — 

The itch of vainly striving to be great, 

When God and nature thwart a high estate, 

In him and Herbert, who has-failed to scan 

The boy as father to the full grown man. 

No truth more clear, nor creed revealed from heaven, 

Than this : " 'Tis hard to rid us of old leaven !" 

Clear as that Bruins, black, or white, or hoary, 

Are more deserving chastisement than glory ; 

Clear as that blustering violence and wrath, 

And scurvy juggles on our brilliant path 

r 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Of Empire — check not speed the march of States, 
"Which else would seek admission at our gates. 
From heroes of a vigilance committee, 
Our chiof attention turn we next to thee, 
Thou Machiavelian necromanoer — Slidell 1 
In diplomatic orchestras, first fiddle. 
Pallas came armed from the head of Jove, 
Or poets lie, take which side you approve ; 
In Slidcll's brain conceived a great white house. 
Has, as we feared, but issued in a mouse, 
.Or other far more loathsome little thing, 
By Walcott sung, when George the Third was king. 
Yet is he in his generation wise, 
A gladiator skilled in hows and whys — 
Skilled with his fellow-broker financiers, 
To trij, if possible, by bribes and fears, 
Their slaves and slave-dominion to retain 
In Cuba, purchased from the crown of Spain, 
Through schemes devised by Judah Benjamin ! 

Ah ! can our Hebrews ever cease to see 

How wide the gulf 'twixt bondmen and the free ; 

Forget how Moses slew an o/erseer, 

O'er captive exiles taught to domineer ; 

Forget a cruel tyrant's tale of bricks, 

The clanking chains, the blows, the brutal kicks, 

Fjom which, through Moses and Jehovah's might, 

They found deliverance in the darkest night 

Of human thraldom yet endured by slaves, 

'Midst desert sands and overwhelming waves ; 

Forget, in short, their own and Egypt's plagues. 

And all but Cuba, pelf, and base intrigues ? 

Oh, Slidell ! Slidell ! Now in thy old age. 

Dare thou be honest, though the rabble rage, 



ADDRESSED TO ALBERT FIKE. 



Though threats thine ears and gibbets greet thine eyes, 
And wreck and ruin seize the vaulted skies, 
This truth recall — " the honest are the wise^ 



ADDRESSED TO ALBERT PIKE, 

A DISTINGIJISHED CITIZEK OF AEKAKSAS. 
I. 

Albert Pike ! Albert Pike !* with the courage to strike 

The monster of Slavery down, 
Or wound him, at least, as a venomous beast, 

From his soles to the scalp of his crown, 
Thou wouldst add to thy name a new chaplet of fame, 

Far beyond thy poetic renown. 

II. 
Thy platform views, well adapted to cruise 

'Neath the flag of a Know-Nothing barque, 
Were never designed for the popular mind 

On the deck of our Federal ark. 
What seals up thine eye, that thou canst not descry, 

As in old Massachusetts, the sins. 
And the ruin and blame, and the sorrow and shame, 

That litter where slavery reigns ? 

III. 

Nor sorcery binds thee, nor interest blinds thee, 
To see nothing else but a fee 

* There may be many who do not know that Mr. Pike is a fine, portly looking 
man. He is of middle age, dignified presence, and high intellectual endowments. 
His hair and beard, long, thick and grizzled, and flowing to his breast, and mas- 
sive shoulders, are not unbecoming such a figure. His manners are courteous 
and prepossessing. He would be looked upon, in any assembly of high-bred gen- 
tlemen, as a man of mark. 

9 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



In an African slave, or a Seminole knave, 

Creek, Choctaw, or vile Cherokee. 
'Tis not that thou failest, for want of due ballast. 

And often receivcst such shocks. 
As light, bounding minnows escape amidst billows, 

Which Tritons* transfix on a rock : 
As waders and suckers and divers and duckers 

Eschew, both on land and on sea, 
In risks which environ from lead and cold iron, 

The dashing, the fearless, the free. 

IV. 

Thou never canst mount, man, to Helicon's fount, man, 

Till lifted on Liberty's wing ! 
With Pegasus spavined, cribbed, crippled, and bavined, | 

As thine is, no mortal can sing. 
Thy vein will not run in the shade or the sun, J 

Or fall like the rain-drops or dew ; 
'Tis an icicled prism, untouched by that chrism 

Poured out on the hallowed few. 



* S. R. does not here mean the marine divinities of that name {Tritonpsq^ie citi 
Phorciquc exerciius omnis), of whose aid Xeptune availed himself, according to 
Virgil, to save the fleet of Eneas from the rocks and quicl<sands of Barbary. 
" Cymothoe simul et Triton adnixus aculo 
Detrudunt naves Scopulo." 
He moans that genus of marine, naked gastropodous mollusks, or Sea Slugs, to 
which tlio name Tritonia has been given byCuvier; or he may mean, rather, those 
marine creatures to which we apply tlie phrase Tritonia monslra. In short, the 
common acceptation of the words "Tritons and Minnows," will explain the 
author's meaning. 

■j- Bavined. S. R. takes the liberty of here using what ho considers a word preg- 
nant witli meaning, as derived from the name of a small poet mentioned in a sweet 
line of Virgil, " Qui Bavium non edit, amet tua carviina Mcevi!" (See Giftbrd's 
Baviad and Maeviad.) Horace also has : 

^'^ Mala .soluta naviscxit alite 
Kerens olentcm Maevium.'^ 
\ See a volume of Poems, by A. Pike, of Arkansas. 

10 



ADDRESSED TO ALBERT PIKE. 



V. 
Aye ! Salvus sis Euge! thy beautiful " JVw^^ce" 

Are cloud-fringes lit by our moons, 
Electric train bows, or fragments of rainbows. 

On icebergs in Boreal zones — 
Not motion and might from the life-giving light, 

And the heat of our tropical suns. 
The wit of the poet wants nothing to show it — 

Ideas and words at his will 
Flow in ; 'tis in changing and nicely arranging 

He proves his artistical skill. 



Why, born a poet, art slow to avow it ? 

And why, as a jurist of mark, 
Remain in Arkansas,*" to wane or advance, as 

A sun to revolve round a spark ? 
We do not deny, sir, that men with one eye, sir, 

Are kings where the many are blind ; 
Nor that, like one Caesar, who wrote from the Weser, 

There are, who seem far more inclined 
In a hamlet at home to be first, than in Rome 

Be next to the first of mankind ; 
But thou, in those rings where none other than kings 

Contend about matters of State, 
Wouldst still hold thine own — mayhap, add a new crown 

To thy laurels in freedom's debate. 

* There are ladies and gentlemen in Arkansas who would do honor to any State 
in our Union; but if Arkansas be not, in general progress, a half century at 
least behind most of the other States, it is grossly slandered, not by S. R., but its 
own most respectable citizens. 

S. R. trusts they will not be extreme to take amiss in these rhymes that anti- 
thetical license always conceded to those who write verse. 

11 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



VII. 

There arc who, called rhymers, satirical mimcrs, 

In heydays of " Nothing to Wear /" 
Take wing from thy market, New York, or to lark it. 

Or labor to triumph elsewhere. 
Ah ! wretched experience, an author at variance 

With publishers touching his works; 
He conscious of merit, they loath to infer it — 

Both moody as Tartars or Turks. 
" The volume will pay," says the author ; " Nay, nay," 

Quoth the publisher, " count not on readers 
Till thoroughly puffed, with your sails tensely luffed 

In the wind's-eye of newspaper leaders. 



** A slavery hater, whose work's iynprimatur 

Dates solely this side the Atlantic, 
Is thought to be crude, sir, or stilted or rude, sir, 

Low, vulgar, pretentious, pedantic. 
And so of all works ; if Macaulay's or Burke's 

Had first seen the light in New York^ sir, 
With price much abated, their worth would be rated 

Much less than if printed in Cork^ sir.* 
Our works want the wit, or the point of a cit, 

Of Jcnold or Hood — say of London ! — 

* The prejudice alluded to against cis-atlantic books, is not shared in 
by all. Wo have our Mutual Admiration Societies, and one stands b\it a poor 
chance of finding a publisher, who is not in some way connected with them. It 
has often been (with more bluntness than fairness or politeness) remarked to tlio 
author of these rhymes, that if he possessed the poetic abilities of Lowell, Long- 
fellow, or Mr. W. A. Butler, he would soon find a publisher iu New York. When, 
in the simplicity of his heart, ho responded: "How can you tell that I have not 
written, or am not capalile of writing, as good poetry as any of them? You 
have not examined my work ; you know nothing of its contents. Jlany good 
WTiters ere now have wanted a Majcenas or a Longman" — a look of pity or con- 
tempt was the only rejoinder vouchsafed him. 

12 



ADDRESSED TO ALBERT PIKE. 



But once brought out there, sir (I would not despair, sir), 
Would sell, though republished by Condon.* 



*' But yours is a poem ; no need of a proem 

In these days of railroads — do hark it ? 
Scarce Milton himself can descend from his shelf — 

Sir, poems are drugs in the market ! 
Anti-Slavery, too, sir ! it never will do^ sir ! 

First attempt — lock it up! my advice, sir ! 
Done to death — will not pay ! hands too full ! do^I pray 

You, attempt something novel ; good by, sir ! 
Anti-slavery verse, be it ever so terse, 

Is not more attractive than prose is ; 
Men stare with surprise, and then turn up their eyes — 

What then, sir ? Sir, turn up their noses." 

X. 

A publishing critic, with faith emporetic 

In books Hiawatha, Miles Standish, 
And Newman's new Horace — as prosy and poor asf 

Its fellows, and quite as outlandish — 
Will vastly more prize, though so many despise, 

Than authors — not known — who write verses 
Which Johnson or Dryden or Pope would take pride in, f 

While damning those metrical farces. 

XI. 

If thoughts are as gems, who their setting contemns 
O'erlooks half the work of a poet ; 

* Condon. The inevitable law of rhyme forces this name upon us. If there be 
any one of the name, a fifth or sixth rate pubUsher, S. R. begs leave to assure 
him that he (S. R.) knows nothing of that fact. 

f See some excellent articles upon this subject in late numbers of the "West- 
minster and London Quarterly Reviews (Oct., 1858). 

13 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



This Horace did not, nor Lord Byron nor Scott, 

Nor Moore (even Puritans know it).* 
Machines can make rhyme, but to write a sublime 

And a beautiful poem without it, 
Requires such blank verse, or redundant or torse. 

As Shakespeare's or Milton's throughout it. 
Not to rhyme is as easy, mayhap, as some leasy 

Blank-verser may find when it boots him, 
Under any pretence, or of sound or of sense, 

To thrum some new gamut that suits liim. 



Hexametrical length, if per se it had strength. 

Yet suits not our language or people ; 
Its rhrjthmus sans rhyme, out oiplace^oui of timej 

Is like a high church ivith low steeple. 
Horatian feet are, in English metre. 

Let publishers think what they may, 
Excepting a few, which we cannot eschew, 

Like Philomel mocked by a jay. 
To thee, our Prince Albert, with stylus or halbert, 

Prepared for stoccado or tierce, 
These strictures apply not, provided you try not 

That frothy hexameter verse. 



A volume of rhymes, says the Charleston Times^ 
By recent nem. con. resolution, 

* Sydney Smith (not the Admiral) had the manliness to admire the poetry of 
Lord Byron; not so Robert Hall, thougli quite as good a judge of its beauties. 
As for Moore, we know him to have been tabooed in public by some who carried 
about a pocket edition of his poems, wliich passed for a "Book of Discipline!" 

14 



ADDRESSED TO ALBERT PIKE. 



Is now in the press of Buchanan and Hess, 

To prove of Divine institution 
— Patriarchal, monarchal, mayhap oligarchal — 

Our Southern Slave Constitution. 
Ye Gods ! can a Muse thus descend to the stews 

Of past ages, to aid in oppression — 
To fetter the free, bend to tyrants the knee, 

And propagate wrong and aggression ? 
No Muse but some doxy — perhaps of Biloxi — 

Deficient in spirit and flight, 
Unable to mount or to Helicon's fount, 

Or Solyma's loftier height. 
Can fail of opposing and loudly exposing 

This cursed and foul importation 
Of slaves from abroad, which add still to the load 

Of our own and our land's degradation. 
Send, Heaven, some Tyrtaeus, with lyrical virtues, 

Some Cowper, or Campbell, or Byron, 
To rescue the slave from the fetters that grave 

On his spirit the signet of iron. 



Thou, certes, thy level, sans plummet or bevel, 

Wouldst find in a Northern State ; 
But, then, competition's the normal condition 

Of all who aspire to be great. 
Go plead for the slave in the land of the brave, 

The noble, the gifted, the free ; 
'Tis freedom alone can give spirit and tone 

To a leader, a genius like thee !* 

* S. R. differs toto codo from Mr. Pike's Know-Nothing and pro-slavery views ; 
but, setting these aside, had, before the rebelhon, the highest respect for his char- 
acter, and admiration of his fine talents. 

15 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



XV. 

"What ! thou as a trooper to serve under Cooper,* 

That traitorous robber and thief, 
"Who bartered bis soul to Commissioner Dole, 

In league with a Chickasaw chief? 
But, no ; not to Dole did he barter his soul ; 

Dole's conscience is clear of those evils 
Of treason and fraud and oppression — fit load 

For a man with a legion of devils. 
Field added to field, and chicane for a shield, 

And gold filched from Treasury vaults, 
May seem for a while rebel hearts to beguile, 

But Justice, if sloic, never halts ! 
When Cooper is found either gafifed or harpooned, 

He will learn that the faith of a savage 
Is just like his own, and is founded alone 

On license to scalp and to ravage. 
The hordes he has led will all pray he were dead, 

And hung from a tree or the gallows, 

*"Agreat man, sir! a very great man, sir I" as S. Houston once ironically 
called him ; or as — mutatis mutandis — Judge Page said of Savage, the poet, " A 
much greater man than you or I, gentle reader 1" 

Gen. Douglas Cooper, a creature of Jeff. Davis, is a big, stout, plethoric, lazy, 
whiskey-bloated Mississippi farmer, who is just enough of a lawyer to be a rogupl 
His mouth is an open sepulchre, garnished by a row of teeth like those of a largo 
rip-saw out of order. His expression of countenance, as exhibited in his photo- 
graph in Pennsylvania Avenue, at Washington, reveals the whole character of the 
man. Cooper prefers the garbage of an Indian life, and the wind-falls of an Indian 
agency (the payment of dead claimants — a most productive source of fraud), to the 
comforts and decencies of a civilized homo and a refined family. 

Shortly before the rebellion, he went to "Washington with some Indian chiefs; 
and, having represented himself as the most loyal of Unionists, succeeded in get- 
ting a large sum of money, with a view of keeping the Indians faithful to the 
government. Cooper of course had the lion's share of the spoils, and soon showed 
his rebel colors. Commissioner Dole considers him the greatest of all the scoun- 
drels called forth by the rebellion, and so do I. Nothing could equal Cooper's 
exuberance of joy on the occasion of Brooks's assault upon Mr. Sumner. 

16 



POETS AND STATESMEN vkrsus SLAVERY. 



Nay, hang liim themselves, and divide him in halves, 

One half to each tribe of his fellows. 
Like some of thy name, and of classical fame,* 

He has swallovi'ed the hook with the bait, 
To tumble and toss, with no very small loss 

Of patience and blubber and weight. 



POETS AND STATESMEN veesus SLAVERY. 

English and American poets, Burns, Cowper, Thomas Moore, Bryant, Long- 
fellow, Hoyt, and others specia lly referred to ; pubUshers and editors of newpapors, 
and clergymen, with certain politicians and municipal officers ; glance at Pitt, 
"VVilberforce, and Burke ; comparison with Juvenal and Persius. Note on the char- 
acter and writings of Burke. 

"Who wincjs to heaven his eade fliofht, 
With Milton's Muse, or, in the light 
Of Shakespeare, humankind surveys, 
All nature open to his gaze ; 
Or studies him of gracious mien. 
The author of the Faery Queen; 
Or glorious Dryden, great and strong. 
In eclogue, apologue, and song; 
* Crabbe, Southey, Wordsworth, Collins, Gray, 

Or unsophisticated Gay ; 
Or the transcendent verse of Pope, 
Or him who sang " primaeval hope," 
And waked the slumbering hills to ring 
With echoes of sweet Wyoming, 
Must own that all with ecstasy, 
As men of genius, noble, free, 
Bold, fearless, hating tyranny, 

* See Lucian's Dialogues. 
2 17 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Have heralded the certain doom 
Of Slavery in Christendom. 

Hail ! Thompson, Goldsmith, Coleridge, Young ! 

Hail ! Scotia's sweetest child of song ! 

Thou bard of passionate desire, 

Chief minstrel of the festal lyre, 

High priest and prophet of the heart, 

The model tfpe of artless art — 

Nay, genius far above all rules, 

Or read in books, or taught in schools ; 

Though oft by moral tempests toss'd 

On disappointment's rocky coast — 

In act and word and soul of thought 

Humanitarian throughout. 

Thrice hail ! Beloved and gentle bard. 

Illustrious author of the Task ! 
What Argus eyes, what watch or ward, 

What expurgation and what mask. 
What venal publisher or printer, 
What brutal overseeing Stentor, 
What sordid sycophant or sharper, 
What Scribner, Appleton, or Harper, 
What vile disunion ist diurnal, 
Who only cares to sell his journal. 
What Brooks, what Bonner, or what Bennet, 
What Toombs or Slidcll of the Senate, 
What Buncombe babbler or quill-man, 
What puffing literary pill- man, 
What tricky, mercenary wag, 
With bogus insults to our flag, 
What Cushing and O'Connor flunkeys. 
Astute and mischievous as monkeys, 
18 



POETS AND STATESMEN versus SLAVERY. 



Or spiders, weaving chains and checks 

For white men's tongues and black men's necks 

Who dare, at freedom's high behest, 

The sum of villanies detest, 

What Raphael, Prentice, or Van Dyke, 

Who, like a fierce, voracious pike, 

To kidnap men and God to libel, 

Rend freedom's charter in the Bible — 

What Mayor Wood or Marshal Rynders, 

With threatening fists and gnashing grinders, 

And cries of treason and sedition 

Against the friends of abolition ; 

Nay, who, with blasphemies comitial. 

In solemn guise of forms official, 

From God, the source of every joy. 

Would stay the homage we employ 

When in his temple we appear, 

To hail him sovereign of the year ; 

^V hat dastard vigilance committee. 

With coat of feathered tar to fit ye. 

If, like the lion-hearted Beecher, 

Sweet freedom's consecrated preacher. 

Ye through the pulpit or the press 

Should seek a negro-slave's release. 

Can quench the light through which thy muse 

The countless wrongs of Slavery views, 

Or drown thy hymn of Freedom's birth 

O'er all the nation's of the earth ? 

And thou, our bright Anacreon, 
The Muses' most melodious son ! 
Thou Saxo-Celtic little Naso, 
In love and song renowned a Tasso, 
19 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



As Horace finished, faultless, witty. 
Whether the angels' loves or Kitty, 
Or wine, or Erin's rocky shore, 
Or Ind or Afric please thee more, 
"What heart, transported by thy lyre, 
And touched with Freedom's hallowed fire, 
Can dare her prcciousness decry, 
Is^'or curse the ills of Slavery ? 



Or thine, our venerated Bryant, 

For Freedom's rights alone defiant, 

In joyous youth and hoary age 

The friend of Freedom's heritage, 

Whose muse admits nor word nor thought 

Which, dying, thou couldst wish to blot. 

Go forth, Apocalyptic Angel ! 
\Vith Longfellow's divine evangel, 
Sweet poet of the golden lyre, 
To warm the heart, the spirit fire, 
And herald, over land and sea, 
The captive exile's jubilee ! 



Or dearer Hoyt's enchanting muse, 
To paint in all the rainbow's hues 
Scenes glowing, heartfelt, bright, serene, 
As ever tasked a poet's pen, — 
Fair scenes of love and joy and peace, 
And heavenly harmony and grace. 
And light as pure as that which throws 
Its purple rays on polar snows. 

20 



POETS AND STATESMEN versus SLAVERY. 



Here Life and Landscape* both agree 
To wake thy touching minstrelsy ; 
And there, alike o'er earth and ocean, 
Echoes of Memory and Emotion ; 
And last, not least, thine Invalid, 
Sweet Freedom's purposes to aid. 

See Lowell, Whittier, Doane, and Morris, 
Bards worthy of the praise of Horace, 
Poe, Parker, Sigourney, and Child, 
And Willis,! ^^S^ °^ Idlewild ! 
See also here the declamation, 
And eke the ratiocination, 
Of Clarkson, Wilberforce, and Channing, 
Of Pitt, and Fox, and greater Burke,| 

* Life and Landscape, Echoes of Memory and Emotion, and the National Invalid, 
by the Rev. Ralph Hoyt, Rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, New York. 
Mr. Hoyt is one of the sweetest of our poets, and one of the most faithful, labo- 
rious, and indefatigable of pastors. His poetry, published in two volumes, is a mino 
of gold — a well of pure and sparkling waters, springing from the depths of a tender, 
compassionating spirit, and arched by a rainbow of the richest and rarest colors. 
A man of exquisite taste and judgment, genial, hopeful, generous, confiding, self- 
reliant, and possessing a noble independence of character — to know is to honor 
and esteem him. Is it not lamentable that a man of such talents, so loving and 
80 lovable, with a large family, all zealous as himself in the cause of religion, being, 
in fact, his organists, choristers, sextons, vestrymen, and wardens, should be de- 
pendent for support, as doubtless he is in a great measure, if not altogether, 
upon a small annual fluctuating income, the free-will offerings of a poor congrega- 
tion, and less in amount tlian a single Sunday collection in Grace Church or Trinity, 
St. Paul's or St. George's? 

■f S. R. has learned, since the above lines were written, that Messrs. Morris and 
Willis are rather advocates than opponents of Southern slavery. A. fico for the 
reputation — moral, literary, or religious — the posthumous reputation, that is, of 
anyone, poet, orator, philosopher, theologian, or statesman, who advocates human 
bondage 1 

I Edmund Burke. This transcendent genius, one of the most profound and bril- 
liant of Enghsh writers — if not decidedly the first — the greatest orator among 

21 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



And others who promote their work, 
The fire on Freedom's altar fanning. 
Scarce with more vehemence at Rome, 
Where vice and folly made their home, 
Did Juvenal and Persins sear 
Bawds, panders, parasites, and tear 
The mask from villany, than those 
"Who, or in poetry or prose, 

philosophers, and iho greatest philosopher among statesmen — a prophet and more 
than a prophet, politically — 

" Quem gloria rerum commcndat clarumque decus ;" 

a man who, though more unjustly damaged by a distich than any other distin- 
guished person save Lord Bacon ; who, though often accused by his adversaries 
of partisan blindness, bitter prejudice, gross exaggeration, tergiversation, and 
inconsistency of all kinds, will, if the circumstances under which his apparently 
conflicting sentiments were expressed, be duly taken into consideration, stand 
forth before the world, not only as a colossus of intellectual power, above the 
measure of his contemporaries, but as the most clear-sighted, upright, candid, 
fearless, and consistent of public men in any age or country. This illustrious 
man, we repeat, the most formidable enemy that corruption and oppression in 
high places have ever encountered, is sometimes ignorantly pressed into the ser- 
vice of pro- slavery advocates, because he has given to the world a sketch of a 
code of laws for the correction of abuses in the government of plantation negroes, 
and for the regulation of the African slave-trade with the West India colonies of 
Great Britain. 

That he thought its abolition more advisable than any scheme of reformation ; 
that he heartily wished it at an end ; that he regarded it as the sense of the 
House of Commons that the trade should gradually decline, and cease altogether 
after a definite period; that he conceived the true origin of the ^ac^e was not in 
the place at which it was hegxj^i, but at the place of its final destination ; that he felt 
disposed to allow the evil for a time, in order the better to correct it ; that his plan 
would lead to its final extinction ; that he trusted infinitely more, according to the 
sound principles of those who ever have, at any time, meliorated tho state of man- 
kind, to the eflect and influence of religion than to all tho rest of the regulations 
put together, are, in so many words, with many others wisely delivered, his views 
upon the subject in his prefatory letter to Mr. Dundas, and in tho following pre- 
amble of the sketch referred to : 

" \V7iercaf, it is expedient and most conformable to tho principles of true 
religion and morality, and to the rules of sound policy, to put an end to all trajjlc 
in the persons of men, and to the detention of their said persons in a state of slavery, 
as soon as tho same may bo effected without producing great inconveniences in 



POETS AND STATESMEN versus SLAVERY. 



Through Britain's isles or these our States, 
Great chartered soil of free debates, 
The wrongs of slavery condemn. 
As far more criminal in men 
Who Christianity profess, 
Than 'tis to those who prayers address 
To stocks and stones, and bend the knee 
In error and idolatry. 

the sudden change of practices of such long standing, and during the time of the 
continuance of said practices, it is desirable and expedient, by proper regulations, 
to lessen the inconveniences and evils attendant on the said traffic and state of 
servitude, until both shall be gradually done away, etc. Be it enacted, etc., etc." — 
(Burke's Works, vol. ii., pp. 389, 390. Harper, 1847.) 

An article on Burke, from a late number of the British Critic, takes, as remarked 
by a New York journal (20th Jan., 1859), a different view of the character and 
talents of that orator and politician from that which has generally been e.xpressed. 
The writer in the Critic asserts that Burke misunderstood the character and ten- 
dency of the French Revolution ; that he picked up a few facts favorable to his 
prejudices and his sophistries, but of the tragedies in a million Iiomes, &c., he was 
profoundly ignorant, (a very ignorant man, no doubt, was Burke 1) picking up a 
few facts, &c. 

Our learned Theban goes on to say, that after a conscientious perusal of twenty 
volumes of Burke's works, he can conscientiously declare that he found nothing 
in them to inspire him with a lofty estimate of the head or the heart of the late 
Mr. Burke. 

We have never had the good fortune to read twenty volumes of Mr. Burke's 
writings, and are not a little surprised that a man who found nothing in the head 
or heart of Mr. Burke to admire, should engage in an undertaking so unprofltable; 
and that, too, in all probability, with very much to admire in other writings around 
him. On reading the opinion of this critic, we opened our second volume of Mr. 
Burke's works, at the Letters on a Regicide Peace ; we glanced at the Letter to 
a Noble Lord, the Letter to Mr. Elliott, the Thoughts on French Affairs, and on 
Scarcity ; we looked into a few of his speeches, closed the volume, and pronounced 
the man who could see nothing, in even a tithe of what we had perused in one 
short sitting, to inspire him with a lofty estimate of the head and heart of the 
late Mr. Burke, a prodigy of obtibseness, heartlcssness, and prejudice. See the 
opinions of such men as Lords Brougham and Macaulay, Lord John Russell, and 
William Hazlitt. 

In short, no one man, in ancient or modern times, has bequeathed to statesmen 
and politicians so rich a legacy of political wisdom and eloquence as are the 
writings of the late Mr. Burke. 

23 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



APPEAL TO BARTH AND LIVINGSTONE. 

WITH A FEW OBSERVATION'S OX KIXQ COTTON, AND OTHER NOTABIL- 
ITIES OF COMMEUCE, 

I. 

Ye men of enterprise and worth, 
Distinsfuished Livinofstone and Barth ! 
Have ye encountered, from Cape Bon 
Down to the Mountains of the Moon, 
Or on the waters of the Zaire, 
A man with woolly head or hairy ; 
Or on the Maio, near Kabara, 
Along the banks of the Kowara, 
Soudan, Felatah-land, Winkara, 
Among Tuaricks or Wikambas, 
Yungos, Balondas and Masambas, — 
Or on the seaboard of Nyassi,* 
Or plains of Lobale or Cassai, 
Or on the mighty lake of Ngami, 
Through Kalahari to Krumami, — 
Or Shire's meads or Shirvva valley, 
In soil as rich as Elealeh, 
Or Ruo's banks or Zomba's brow. 
Where cotton-weavers even now. 
With treadles, shuttles, warp and woof. 
Keep want and nakedness aloof, — 
Or where the Congo circumscribes 
Great Mais, chief of many tribes, — 
Or where the mighty Mnanzanza 
His sovereign sway extends to Panza ; 

*Lako Nyassi, called The Sea. — See Cotton's Atlas. 
24 



APPEAL TO EARTH AND LIVINGSTONE. 



Or Matiamvo, king of men, 

Reigns paramount o'er Barotse plain, — 

Or southward, thence, to Cape Agullas, 

A single negro such a fool as 

To manifest the least desire 

To leave his country and his sire, 

That he may vegetate and rot on 

Some patch of sugar-cane or cotton, 

Tohacco, cocoa, coffee, rice, 

Or any esculent or spice ; 

A slave to one who gives but clothes 

And food, with cruel cuifs and blows ; 

Who looks upon him as a brute. 

With scarce a human attribute ; 

Who, in the color of his skin. 

Sees the unpardonable sin ; 

And yet so blind and incoherent 

To deem himself as God's vicegerent, 

In that he would the man oerdrive, 

To save the Negro soul alive! 

II. 

Suppose that even the very worst 
Befall a slave, in lands accursed 
With Pagan ignorance and vice, 
Idolatry and prejudice — 
Can that be pleaded as a reason. 
Or any other than high-treason, 
A foolish, wicked, vain pretence 
Against both law and common sense, 
That Christians should be so malefic^ 

So destitute of all thaVs good, 
To carry on a murderous traffic 

In human flesh and human blood ? 
25 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



III. 
Some think it a most indispensable tiling 
To hold men as bond slaves where Cotton is king ; 
Moreover, slaves, never as hopeless of cash, 
Work well without fear of the cudgel or lash. 
We could not, without them, produce such supplies 
As would for our millions of people suffice, 
For millions of looms, spinning-jennies and wheels, 
Employed on our robes from our hCad to our heels. 
Slaves all have a special regard for King Sheep-wool, 
And need in his service nor cowhide nor peep-skull.* 
King Cane must, however, have paddles and whips. 
That slaves may his nectar commend to our lips. 
'Tis only your blacks who can bear the hot stream, 
The fire and the vapor of sugar-house steam, 
As well as the culture of ginger and spice, 
Yams, coflce and cocoa, bananas and rice. 
From Texas to Spain, from Japan to Morocco, 
Black slaves are the subjects to suit King Tobacco ; 
And who to deny will be hardy enough 
That their noses were made to be servile to snuff? 
'Tis only a nigger that can with good grace 
Exhibit a dust-hole each side of his face, 
Presume, without manifest folly or sin. 
To masticate compost as black as his skin, 
Or taint our best carpets, our hearthstones and rugs. 
With pools of saliva as noisome as bugs. 

IV. 

They doubtless would also be fit for King Bom- 
Ba ! — Sense must we sever from rhyme thus to come 
Into play with King Rye, and Kings Millet and Wheat^ 
Kinr; Iro7i, Kinfj Brass, Copper-mines, and King Peat, 

* Peep-skuU. A nick-namo for Overseer. 
26 



APPEAL TO BAETH AND LIVINGSTONE. 



King Silver, King Lead, and "that merry old soul," 

The blackest of niggers, our good friend King Coal ; 

The best, we believe, of those named, on the whole, 

Good for fire and for light and for steaming and gas, 

The smelting of ores, and the shaping of glass, 

The working and moulding of copper and iron, 

Gold, silver, and tin, and all ores which environ 

The earth, or lie deeply intombed in its chawdron, 

Like gems which from heat take some shape chiliadron ; 

And last, though not least, is its use for the Press, 

The beacon of Freedom, the seal of redress, 

The touchstone of truth, hidden things to explore. 

And prove to the masses that knowledge is power. 

A muse of great note sees in John Barley-corn 

The greatest of heroes or monarchs yet born ; 

Yet some have more faith in, than all put together. 

That wise and most puissant monarch. King Leather. 

The Yankees assert that Kings Livestock and Hay, 

Kings Butter and Cheese, rule with absolute sway. 

North of Mason and Dixon, where also Machine, 

With most other potentates, holds his demesne ; 

Yet freely admit that King Hemp and King Slaughter 

O'errule at the South, or assuredly " oughter !" 

For though our best hemp to the North owes its growth, 

'Tis more in executive need at the South. 

We instance their hanging of Methodist parsons, 

Most falsely accused of well-poisonings and arsons. 

V. 

Kings Brandy and Rum, and ICing Gin, have dominions. 
Where all, black and white, have discordant opinions ; 
Where battles are fought, and where glory is none; 
Where costards are broken with bludgeon or stone, 
As late in those riotous fights in New York, 

27 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Where pestilent fellows from Glasgow or Cork, 

With howlings and yellings, and horrid grimaces, 

Befitting the scum of all turbulent places, 

And billets and bludgeons, and weapons of iron. 

The homes of a peaceable people environ 

(Urged on by an artful and traitorous horde. 

Secessionists all, both in deed and in word), 

For no other crime or misdoing, I ween, 

Than that which is found in the hue of their skin. 

And drag them to death, and pursue in the streets. 

And torture and kill amidst curses and threats ! 

One fiendish, murderous ruflian, espying 

A victim of cruelty bleeding and dying. 

Uplifted a paving-stone, heavy as lead, 

And all that was human effaced from his head ; 

But sidewalks bespattered with blood are less foul 

Than the horrible stains on that murderer's soul. 

Another swung high from a gibbet was seen, 

Calcined, it is said, in a blaze of caniphene ; 

Some have it, however, that rescued, though late, 

His life was preserved from that terrible fate. 

An Orphan Asylum consumed to the ground, 

Its poor little in-dwellers flying around 

For protection, must finish what (jmr jjarenthc.sc) 

We here can record of this devilish case. 

Can Erin, how glorious soever her sheen, 

Erase this d d spot from her emerald green ? 

More criminal far than the ruffians from Cork, 
Are those of the Copperhead crew in New York, 
Who dare to extrude from Eighth-avenue cars,* 
For no other cause than their skin and their scars, 

* Eighth- Avenue Cars. Captain Raymond, of the Harris Cavalry, during the riots 
in July, i)laccd two negroes, a young man and a very old woman, xmder the pro- 
tection of the author of these rliynies. They came from Staten Island. Some 

28 



APPEAL TO BARTH AND LIVINGSTONE. 



Our soldiers, and others of African blood — 

Not one whit less pure than themselves, and as good 

(If " all men hy nature are equal ") as those 

Who piously lift up their eyes and their nose, 

In loathing and hate of a down-trodden tribe, 

Meet subjects, they think, for a sneer and a gibe, 

" Because of unsavory smells from their flesh, 

As oily and tainted and rancid as fish !" 

Ah me ! there are whites who, from sweating and grease 

From nature, from habit, neglect, or disease, 

Are foul as the nastiest African throng, 

And much more offensive in act and in tongue. 

Yet such to Eighth-avenue cars are admitted — 

Nay, more : who most truculent crimes have committed, 

Are gladly received ; while poor, innocent blacks 

Are forced with contumely out on their tracks. 

Full many a time in the States of the South 

(We cannot and will not gloss over the truth) 

We've travelled in coaches with those in high life, 

But never observed, as a matter of strife, 

That slaves of all colors and shades sat beside 

Their owners with quite as much pleasure and pride 

daj'S after the riots were qnolled, the man, accompanied by his protector, re- 
turned to the island to see tlie Captain. There they encountered a number of 
ecowhng and murderous-looking ruffians, who, being in the employment of the 
government, did not dare, in open daylight, to ofier violence. "We then took the 
negro to New York. Having tried to enter an Eighth-avenue car, in transitu, at 
Spring street, we were rudely repulsed by the conductor, who said, " they did 
not take niggers." We glanced at the passengers on leaving, and saw a number 
of fellows with whom any negro in New York would bear a favorable comparison. 
At the corner of Morris street, on the wharf, one drunken, violent vagabond 
Beized our poor follower ; but a determination on our part, if necessary, to sacri- 
fice our life in his defence, induced his assailant to desist. The police were, 
moreover, fortunately witliin call. Have the railroad company any right to ex- 
clude from their cars a colored servant accompanying a white citizen — a bond fide 
servant — in the employment of such citizen ? — s. R. 

29 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



As the owners themselves — we should rather say more, 
For such is the love of display in the Moor ; — 
But here, whom we view as the scum of the earth, 
Disdain and abhor all of African birth ! 
So much for Eighth-avenue — now to King Cotton 
Return we, as Frenchmen are wont to our mutton.* 
Mark also Kings Marble and Timber and Brick, 
By whom a black skull' is not valued a tick; 
For none have constructiveness, so it is said 
(They want both for trades and professions a head). 
By none arc they valued so much as by Loc/, 
Whose trunk is all sapwood, his head wrapt in fog; 
'Tis thought by such only that commerce aud trade, 
If blacks were set free, would immediately fade ; 
And that with the fact lying plainly before them, 
That thousands of laboring whites would implore them 
For work, with good wages, in sugar and rice fields, 
Or any employ which a good paying price yields. 



Do look at those boat-hands employed at the South, 

Those ditch and those levy men — owning the truth. 

That ne'er in an Indian or African sun 

Was work so laborious more cheerily done ; 

Not even by our own gallant tars off Rangoon, 

Or brave British hearts, without querulous clamor, 

Now fighting in India at fifty of Raumer. 

Make Africans free, and white labor will double 

In profit and quality, saving the trouble 

Which now, with the sense of the. world in league 

Against slavery, makes it a curse and a plague. 

*Revanons d 7ws mouton. 
30 



APPEAL TO BARTH AND LIVINGSTONE. 



Now what we respectfully aim at is this, 

— We trust our good friends will not take it amiss — 

That, aided by Europe, we all pay a tax 

To hasten rthe freedom of Southern slave blacks 

(For Europe ought certainly help" to make cease 

A curse which her people have helped to increase), 

And send them as colonists back to those lands 

From which they were forced by piratical bands; 

That our government now for these children of Juba 

Pay at Mast thrice ten times what it offered for Cuba. 

Would this be too much for their blood spent, and toil, 

Increasing our commerce and working our soil, 

With beggarly raiment, cheap food, and no wages. 

Sans love, sans respect^ sans approval, for ages ? 

Now, now ! brother freemen, or never, betake ye 

To do what Great Britain has done in Jamaica, 

For slaves; then with jennies and frames and power-looms, 

Gins, teachers, and books, send them all to their homes. 

A thousand times better some loss to our marts. 

Than down-trodden people with desolate hearts ; 

A thousand times better abandoned plantations. 

Than consciences stung with remorse and vexations. 



Apparatus and seed might for sugar be tried, too, 

And steamboats and wagons, where needed, supplied, too ; 

For want of conveyance increases the trouble 

Of African farmers a hundred-fold double. 

Our fi'cedmen, as stated, to emigrate wrought on, 

Should stop where the soil is adapted to cotton, 

Or sugar, or indigo, coffee, or rice. 

Or other productions that yield a good price. 

31 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Not a few might be placed at Cape Coast, or Loango, 

Or up the Zambezi as highasChapongo; 

No delta more rich, not the Ganges' or Nile's, 

Or o'en Mississippi for hundreds of miles ; 

Its rapids, 'tis said, may be easily passed, 

Deserted no longer, no longer a waste, 

IX. 

There are who may live to see yet on its banks 
The empire of Saxons, the commerce of Franks ; 
Fish Bay, or the Nourse, Omarrnru, or Canna ; 
Or Elephant Fount, Wesley Vale, Batonana ; 
The Swakop, Kinsip, Chuntop Kurachane, 
Gariep or Mapoot, Gavarro, Inhambane 
(Inhambane — not distant from Wilberforce Cape, 
And fit, one should think, for the culture of grape); 
The lands on the Benin, Lake Tchadd, the Kowarra, 
Bornou and Soudan, by the Chadda, to Vari ; 
The Assince, Yoltra, Cavalla, St. Paul, 
Gal Unas, Scarcios, Jeba, Senegal — 
Might all be by millions of colonists planted, 
AVho with ease might supply all the produce now wanted, 
Thus creating new wants, and revealing new sources. 
Give Nature new life, and mechanics new forces. 
Our planters at home, if requiring more hands 
Than we can afford, to supply their demands. 
Than slaves, or free white men, a body of Coolies, 
Would find it an easier task to control is; 
Or Peons of Mexico, better and cheaper, 
And far less in need of the eye of a keeper. 
An agent or two from onr districts or counties 
Might go to engage them for suitable bounties. 
To work, as agreed, for a scries of years, 
Their passage paid, and irabursed all arrears, 
32 



SONG. 

Both parties well pleased, without fear of estrangements, 

Would enter anew into former arrangements. 

Or better, by far, would it now seem to be, 

Since slaves of the rebels are all proclaimed free — ■ 

Yea ! all who within our cordon militaire 

Seek freedom, are free as the fresh mountain air — 

That, owning their masters' sequestrated lands, 

They hold them as headmen, not less than as hands, 

And prove that the child of an African sun 

Is worthy himself and his labors to own ; 

Or, hiring as freemen for liberal wages. 

Raise cotton or sugar as each one engages — 

Contented to own, or to live on the soil. 

In climates best suiting their tastes and their toil. 

Their masters have taught them the art of production — 

'Twere strange if they failed to improve^ the instruction ; 

Enlarging their minds, and their comforts and homes. 

And sending all nations supplies for their looms. 

They'll think of past tyranny only to hate it. 

And sing, Deus nobis hcec otia fecit. 

"We, too, to our chief now indite some new odes, 

A chief worth a legion of Mantuan gods 1 



ADDRESSED TO HIS EXCELLENCY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE 

UNITED BTATES, 

Magnanimous chief of a chivalrous nation. 

The pole-star of freedom awaits on thy name ; 
Resplendent with hope to our slave population, 

Their minds to illumine, their rights to proclaim. 
To thee 'tis reserved, in the sphere of thy duty. 

To sunder the last link of Slavery's chain : 

3 33 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Its wrongs to redress, and restore in their beauty 
Stray planets to move in their orbits again. 

Awake, then, great chief, to renown in our story ! 
The nations all hail thee as destined to be 

A halo of light, and a pillar of glory. 

The hope of the bondman, the pride of the free ! 

United we stand, but divided we perish, 

So proverbed experience instructs us to think ; 
The faith we profess, and the hopes that wc cherish, 

In union must rise, or in disunion sink. 
Now up with our star-spangled banner forever, 

Each new star increasing our lustre and might. 
The stripes still retaining, from bondage we sever, 

But keep as a terror to foemen in fight. 
Awake, then, etc. 

(or this:) ' 
Our national chief stands revealed in his glory, 

O'er continents, oceans, and isles of the sea, 
The herald of union to Whig and to Tory, 

The friend of the slave, and the boast of the free. 
See genius and skill, and good sense and good nature, 

Integrity, eloquence, wisdom, and wit. 
With modesty marked in his every feature, 

And all with the sunshine of cheerfulness lit ! 

As Washington pure, and as Jefferson able, 

Not Adams more faithful, or Jackson more brave, 
To handle the rudder, to manage the cable, 

To right the great ship, and to master the wave. 
Then rally in force, ye Republican freemen. 

Around the bright banner of Lincoln the Wise, 
The friend of paid labor, protector of women. 

The joy of our heart, and the light of our eyes ! 
34 



A PRO-SLAVERY BISHOP. 



A PRO-SLAVERY BISHOP. 

ADDRESS TO THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS. 
*■ I. 

He ill deserves a freeman's honored name, 

Who hills the sense of conscious guilt and shame, 

Auspicious harbinger of future good ! 

In those who might and those who gladly would 

The slave unloose from servitude and woe, 

And in his heart bid heavenly virtues glow. 

Ye priests and teachers of a holy creed ! 

Whence comes your new commission to impede 

The growth of righteousness in human hearts ? 

That heavenly light to stifle which imparts 

Life, love, and truth, benevolence divine, 

And all that tends the spirit to refine ? 

I would not — no, for all the world holds dear — 

The advocate of slavery appear ; 

Or gloss the text which makes the captive see 

The worth, the priceless worth of liberty ! 



A bishop thou ? and Freeman is thy name ! 
Oh, shame to reason ! To religion shame ! 
What ! serve God's altar in his house. 
And there the cause of slavery espouse ? 
Is this to'fiU thy memory with the law ?* 
Thy hearers' hearts from evil to withdraw » 
Cimmerian darkness from the soul to chase, 
The will to quicken with celestial grace ? 

* See the Ordinal in the Book of Common Prayer. 
35 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Is this the faith on holy prophets built, 
But chief on him who cleanses from all guilt, 
The truth, the life, the way, the model rule, 
Too plain, too holy to mislead a fool ? 
Is this the unity and bond of jjeace — 
This the abundant gift of heavenly grace ? 
Is this the light of knowledge to impart — 
With love divine to renovate the heart ? 
Is this of truth and righteousness the path. 
Or that of cruel perfidy and wrath ? 
Is this to fly the venomed serpent's face, 
Or Gorgon's viperous tresses to embrace ? 
Is this thy people on thy heart to bear, 
And on its altar pour the oil of prayer ? 

III. 
Prophets, apostles, teachers, all were given 
In faith and love to win the souls to heaven ! 
Is he a shepherd entering at the door, 
"Who hears wolves howl and hungry lions roar, 
Yet, as a hireling utterly forsworn, 
Deserts his flock in savage fury torn ? 



Ye watchmen, shepherds, stewards, divinely sent 
To teach, premonish, feed, provide, prevent ! 
Have ye of all without " a good report 1" 
Dares no one, truly, on your lives, retort 
That you have shunned God's teachings to assert- 
Nay, striven his phiinest statijtes to pervert ? 
Freeman ! We envy not the doubtful praii?e 
Tliat made thee bishop in degenerate days. 
We envy not the powers which fi:>rge a chain 
To bind the body and the spirit stain, 

3G 



A PRO-SLAVERY BISHOP. 



And as a canker to the heart of slaves, 

From pain no respite gives but in their graves. 

V. 

From their effects to their infernal source, 

To thee belongs, distinguished Wilberforce,* 

Hereditary friend of Afric's race, 

The countless ills of slavery to trace. 

Our Freeman's sermons to hold up to scorn, 

Conceived in blindness, of oppression born ; 

And yet, perhaps, disdain would best reply, — 

******* 
Ah ! vpell-a-day ! The very men he sought 
To please, by preaching creeds with error frauo-ht 
Soon learned to mete ineffable contempt 
On every vain and impotent attempt 
A bilious code of morals to impose 
On harmless social circles,f they arose, 
In mass ****** 

******* 

The charm was gone, the man of God retired, 
With restless zeal and quick resentment fired, 
To brand as hateful, damnable decoys — 
Shows, pageants, galas, concerts, festive joys, 
As rites of Belial all, seducing youth 
From peace and virtue, innocence and truth ! 
But why not lash the sin which most depraves 
The soul and spirit in a land of slaves ? 
Why dare the sum of villanies uphold, 
As not unworthy of an age of gold ? 

* See " Reproof of the Americaa Church," by Bishop Wilberforce. 

f The Rev. Dr. Freeman resigned his parish iu Raleigh, rather than consent to 
have the chUdren of his congregation taught dancing. This is the same worthy 
bisliop who felt no scruples in preaching pro-slavery sermons. 

37 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Ah me ! Did ever Christian prelate think 
'Tis right, from worldly policy, to wink 
At all the horrors of a wicked code, 
By men detested and abhorred of God, 
By all detested save, perhaps, by^ those 
Brought up from infancy to witness woes ; 
Which, seeing daily, they may cease to view, 
As fraught with horrors of the blackest hue. 

VI. 

Till men are chosen bishops not because 

They own slave chattels and approve slave laws, 

The Church Episcopal in Southern States 

Will never find the favor that awaits 

Those hallowed views, which only prize a crown, 

By knowledge, zeal, and saint-like labors won. 

In vain the Church's symmetry and grace, 

If hideous gangrene mar her inward peace ! 

In vain the rank and talents which adorn 

The sons and daughters in her household bom, 

Till, true to lofty principles, she braves 

The foul abuses of a land of slaves ; 

Till rising in the glory of her might, 

She on her offspring pours a flood of light ; 

Or bond or freeman, ignoranl or wise, 

Who needs must then her every canon prize, 

Proclaim her worth, her genial spirit foel, 

And on their hearts impress her hallowed seal. 

VII. 

Fathers in God ! Chief pastors of his fold. 
Who feed his flock, his discipline uphold, 
Proclaim his word, profess a godly life, 
Eschewing wrath, ambition, worldly strife, 
38 



A PRO-SLAVERY BISHOP. 



Grave, patient, sober, faithful, firm, and kind, 

Experienced, wise, enliglitened, and refined. 

Say should applause, or bonds, or hope of pelf, 

The face of tyrants or the love of self. 

One jot or tittle of your rights abate, 

The sacred rights of your exalted state, 

As overseers to feed the flock of Christ, 

Each as his envoy, almoner, and priest, — 

To teach that all in him are born free. 

Their chart his life, his word their panoply. 

What is the freedom granted negro slaves ? 

What but the license which the heart depraves, 

And not the franchise Avhich from ruin saves. 

Is there a church for black men as for white ? 

Is it in negroes wrong to read and write ? 

Or must we have the warrant of a skin, 

To save us from the punishment and sin 

Of reading that which you, on oath, declare 

Contains all truth essential to prepare 

Those souls, through faith, to save themselves alive, 

Who keep its laws, its oracles believe ?* 

VIII. 

Right Reverend Seers ! well skilled in holy writ, 
By prayer and iHith and meditation fit 
The truth to teach, beware lest you abuse 
Your gifts to lead us into perverse views, — 
Lest you ordain or venture to send forth 
Those who, like wolves, consider not the worth 
Of bond and free, alike the sons of God, 
Who holds supreme the balance and the rod, 

* Article 6. — Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation ; so 
that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to bo re- 
quired of any man that it should be believed aa an article of faith, or be thought 
requisite or necessary to salvation. 

39 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



In short, who may, but will not, one and all, 
To Jews and Gentiles testify like Paul. 
Are you apostles, proj^hets, teachers given 
To win to Christ, to educate for heaven ? 
And shall you reverend fathers dare obtrude, 
Upon his priesthood, men who would exclude 
From sacred functions those whose greatest sin 
Is only in the color of their skin ? 
Ah ! is it thus that Paul to us is known ? 
That John or James or Polycarp, renown, 
As Christian martyrs, from the world have won ? 
Or, better still, a glorious crown on high, 
From Him, the Source of Immortality ?* 

IX. 

To you, right reverend father, it is given, 
By right of holy heritage from heaven, 
To aid the feeble, and to guide the blind. 
The outcast rescue, and the lost one find, 
With mercy tempering justice in reproof. 
Nor from the humble standing far aloof — 
Beseech, exhort, rebuke, instilling hope, 
Nor yet to erring men give rampant scope ; 
Yourselves, your lives, as archetypes approve, 
Of faith and truth and piety (Ud love. 

X. 

Where in that Bible, or the Common Prayer, 
Those costly gifts to England's royal heir. 

Canst thou, good ,f to a text refer 

Which seems a chartered title to confer, 

* " I am tho Resurrection and tho Life." Sec a sermon on this subject bj 
MelviUo. 

f The Rev. Dr. is reported to have preached a strong pro-slavery sermon 

in Trinity Church, soon after his presentation of a Bible and Prayer Book 
to the Prince of Wales. 

40 



A PRO-SLAVERY BISHOP. 



On Christian men, to purchase human souls, 
Or at the line, the tropic, or the poles ; 
Nay, soul and body as their chattels own, 
In perpetuity from sire to son — 
In short, an African to steal or buy 
In false pretence of Christian charity ? 

And why suppose that England's gracious queen, 

Or English loyal subjects, could have been 

Well pleased with gifts from those who fain would try 

The sum of villanies to justify? 

The very stones, methinks, might well cry out. 

Thy slavery texts and doctrines to refute — 

Cry out from tablets, minarets, and walls. 

Whence sweetly echoing memory recalls 

The captive exile hastening to be free. 

O'er every island, continent, and sea, 

Where'er Britannia's sword has cut in twain 

The clanking fetters of a bondman's chain. 

Or where Britannia's genius has unfurled 

The flag of freedom o'er a ransomed world. 

When Korah, in the tabernacle's porch, 
With incense kindled at the sacred torch 
Of God's high altar, rashly sought to break 
A ritual usage, and presumed to take 
The hallowed charge of Aaron's priestly line. 
The earth, with horror at his base design. 
Its mouth wide opening to its darkest caves, 
Like mountain billows in the ocean waves, 
Ingulphed that rebel in a fire of hell, 
With all his crew. So rebel angels fell, 
With hideous ruin and combustion driven, 
As traitors to the monarchy of heaven. 

41 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



How much less grievous punishment do those 
Deserve, bethink you, who would interpose 
To break, not Moses' ceremonial rites, 
But every moral precept that incites 
To faith and hope and charity and love. 
And joy and peace, descending from above ? 
Yet such the guilt of one who now defends 
The trade in souls, to compass private ends. 

Couldst thou, Seabury !* fathom the contempt 
With which the South regards thy vain attempt 
To cotton up with sophistry and art 
That foulest ulcer of the human heart 
Called negro bondage, it could scarcely fail 
To d£fmp thy faith, to mitigate thy zeal. 
Hast thou not, from the progress of events, 
The moral feelings and the common sense 
Of all mankind, discerned the party stripe 
Of those — the vilest of all human type ! — 
"Who buy and sell and steal and part for life 
Friends, children, parents, kindred, man and wife ? 

Doubtless there are who wish their surpliced tools 
Should chop the jargon logic of the schools 
Like thee, as shrewd apologists for knaves 
Who profit largely in the trade of slaves. 
Doubtless promotion in the Church or State 
Is oft the lot of those who advocate 
Pro-slavery views, and hope to find amends, 
In rich incumbencies, for loss of friends. 

Priests, bishops, deacons guide, most gracious Lord, 
In all the saving doctrines of thy word. 

♦See his book called "Slavery Justified!" 
42 



SCHISM AMONG THE METHODISTS. 



Let each in Sion be a shining light, 

To point the way, to dissipate the night. 

Like Samson strong, and dexterous to show 

How Slavery's chains dissolve like wreaths of snow. 



SCHISM AMONG THE METHODISTS. 

Schism among the Methodists, North and South. — Remonstrance. — Slavery 
cause of Schism. — Other baneful effects of Slavery and Mammon-worship. — Twin 
idols. — One worshipped in the temple of the other. — Yain hope by Church mem- 
bership alone to be saved from the effects of such a curse. — "Wesley and his dis- 
cipline. — Preachers inconsistent, who, as Methodists, own Slaves. — Allusion to a 
celebrated Irish leader of insurrection. 

Presbyterians. — "What they have done for negro emancipation. — Rome, Arch- 
bishop Hughes. — Mode by which Presbyterians might abolish Slavery, at least in 
their own Church. — The child Mortara. — Our interference. — Grievances at home 
to be remedied. — No sympathy for poor negroes. — The novel. Stanhope Burleigh. — 
Toung America. 

Unitarians. — Their great men. — "Why Clay, 'Webster, and Calhoun will go down 
to posterity with diminished lustre. — Cassius M. Clay. — His noble character. — 
Gov. Chase of Ohio. — Baptists. — Episcopalians. — Drawback to the success of the 
Church. — The Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers. — Their consistency 
and great benevolence. — Louise, a slave. — Rachael Barker. — Her transcendent 
loveUness and kindness. 

I. 

Church North ! Churcn South ! Ah me ! what dire disgrace 

The sacred mark of Union to efface, 

And in its room laboriously bring in 

Schism, the first-born of the man of sin ! 

Is Christ divided? Nay, his constant prayer 

For his disciples was that they should e'er 

Speak the same thing, be ever of one mind. 

In love and faith and verity conjoined. 

As with the Father, perfected in one. 

The Holy Spirit and co-equal Son, 

In dwelling, work, in will and power the same ; 

43 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



E'en so should tliose who invocate that name, 

In heart and mind, and in the bond of peace, 

For good, united work, nor ever ceaso, 

Till the whole earth be mantled o'er with love, 

Life, light and truth, and wisdom from above. 

But why divided are the North and South ? 

For what so indivisible as truth ? 

Is slavery, or is it not a curse ? 

Evil itself, and evil in its source. 

It comes from him, the author of all woe 

To thrones empyreal and frail man below. 

Those films removed which blear the mental eye. 

Pride, interest, wrath, one fails not to descry — 

Admit, lament, and candidly to trace 

The countless wrongs to Afric's sable race, 

From bondage sprung ; the most atrocious crime 

That ever stained the calendar of time. 

Men of the North, long living in the South, 

To hoary age, perchauce from early youth ! 

Do you, when once invested with the right — 

So law-books call it, but we need not cite — 

By marriage, death, or change, to own a slave. 

His neck, through charity, from bondage save ? 

Nay, oft of tyrants you become the worst, 

And treat your slaves as though by Heaven accurst. 

There arc, indeed, who, verging towards the goal 

Of life, bethink the peril to the soul 

Of bondage, and their slaves at last make free, 

Their day of death, a day of jubilee. 

II. 
In Mammon's gorgeous fane erected high, 
On marble columns reaching to the sky, 
Stands thy grim idol, cursed slavery. 

44 



SCHISM AMONG THE METHODISTS. 



Thither thy worshipper his oifering brings, 

Close to the altar of the King of kings. 

Oblation vain ! • Behold him blood-stained, where 

He kneels, in solemn mockery of prayer, 

Before the throne and image of his God; 

Hangs on his sinful soul a double load 

Of homicide and slavery, the weight, 

Yet recks he not, or would procrastinate ; 

Compounds between his conscience and the devil, 

For all his acts and tolerance of evil. 

And trusts his Church's membership will keep 

His fame alive, his spirit from the deep ! 

Ye Southern Methodists, is this the rule 

Your Wesley taught ye ? — this the sacred school 

Of faith, of morals, and of discipline, 

In which your members promise to combine ; 

Nay, body, spirit, heart and soul devote. 

Your Church to serve, the word of God promote. 

Yourselves, your neighbors, and mankind to save 

From death, eternal death, beyond the grave? 

III. 

Why do you- hesitate your slaves to free. 

If you so clearly all the evils see, 

Which spring from bitter roots of slavery ?* 

* Question — "What can be done for the extirpation of the evils of slavery? 

1st. We declare that we are as much as ever convinced of the great evil of 
slavery. Therefore no slaveholder shall be eligible to any official station in our 
Church hereafter, when the laws of the State in which he lives will admit cf 
emancipation and permit the liberated slave to enjoy freedom. 

2dly. When any travelling preaclier becomes an owner of a slave or slaves by 
any means, he sliall forfeit his ministerial character in our Churcli, unless he exe- 
cute, if it be practicable, a legal emancipation of such slaves, conformably to the 
laws of the State in which he lives. 

3dly. All our preachers shall prudently enforce upon our members the neces- 
sity of teaching thdr slaves to read the Word of God. — Doctrines and Discipline of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, Part the second, Section of Slavery. 

45 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Not more incongruous or absurd the waj's 

Of him who wished, wliile chanting freedom's praise,* 

To own plantations full of sleek-skinned slaves, 

Than is the Southern Methodist who raves 

To large assemblies met with itching ears, 

Distraught alike by Christian hopes and fears, 

With this his book of discipline before him, 

And wrath and hell and judgment hanging o'er him. 

PRESBYTERIANS. 
IV. 

In grand Assembly, Kirk, or Synod, 

Where grain from chaff is deftly winnowed, 

Their learning, talents, zeal, well known — 

For or against a creed or crown — 

Their number, wealth, and influence — 

Their dialectic eloquence — 

Prove Presbyterians, as admitted 

By all, pre-eminently fitted 

To cause that slaves be manumitted. 

None sooner can than they discover. 

That 'tween a cattle and slavc-drover. 

Or say between the beasts they drive — 

The quadruped, that is, and biped 

Whose lot is to be blobber-lipped, 

In all that is correlative — 

The difference is but what we see 

'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee ! 

For stern republicans who vow * 

To lop off all the heads that bow 

In homage too profound to Rome, 

'Twere well to think we have at home 

* John Mitchell. 
46 



SCHISM AMONG THE METHODISTS. 



Four million souls who bend the knee 

In blind and hopeless slavery, — 

Beyond what law or conscience warrants, 

To Fay, at least, ten thousand tyrants ! 

The gentle reader will, we hope, 

Perceive that here we use a trope, 

As touching lopping off the heads 

Of all who say their prayers on beads. 

We mean no more than fair delivery 

From Popish tricks and Popish knavery. 

Saint worship, chiefly Mariolatry, w 

As practised by the Romish Varletry, 

And other damning innovations. 

By Rome ingrafted on the nations. 

If while we thunder at John Hughes, 

And execrate his monkish views, 

We claimed, as for ourselves, the right 

Of slaves, with energy and might — 

Such as at Westminster or Dort,* 

Gave to our measures due support. 

And would especially decree 

An act of uniformity, 

In this : that no one have communion 

With us as Churchmen in our union. 

Who would or buy, or sell, or have 

A human being as a slave — 

* The "Westminster Confession, agreeing with the sentiments of the Synod of 
Dort, was approved and adopted by the General Assembly in 1647, and two years 
afterwards ratified by act of Parliament as the public and avowed confession of 
the Church of Scotland. 

By act of Parliament, in 1690, it was again declared to be the national standard 
of fuith in Scotland, and subscription to it as the confession of faith specially re- 
quired of every person who shaU be admitted a minister or preacher within this 
Church. Subscription to it was also enjoined, by the act of union in 1707, on all 
professors, principals, regents, masters, and others, bearing office in any of the 
Scottish Universities. 

47 



BURDEN OP THE SOUTH. 



Their clanking fetters would no more 

Disturb our peace or cramp our power. 

Touching the Jewish child Mortara, 

Why should our Presbytciians care a 

Rush for him or that rude nymph 

Who dashed his little head with lymph ? 

The thing has done the boy no harm. 

If he had had a little more, 

To wash his skin or cleanse a sore, 

It should not generate alarm. 

Mortara pere, a mere curmudgeon, 

'Tis said, might feign to be in dudgeon ; 

Or might he nor, if scant in pocket, 

Contrive a cunning trick to stock it ? 

For nothing tends like persecution 

To raise an ample contribution. 

It is, moreover, to our credit. 

That we take part with outraged merit, 

Or what as merit is regarded, 

And should, as such, be well rewarded ; 

Though often to our cost 'tis found, 

" We run the thing into the ground ;" 

Which means that virtues in extremes, 

Are but the Devil's stratagems. 

Or that who would small things attempt 

To magnify, deserves contempt. 

VIII. 

Why should our zeal for circumcision 

Expose our country to derision ? 

It makes this child a martyred hero. 

And Pio None bad as Nero ; 

While he, our martyr, feels most happy, 

And thinks his sympathizers sappy. 



SCTTTSM AMONG THE METHODISTS. 



This fuss makes capital for Jews, 

And fills our journals and reviews, 

Mayhap our churches, courts, and stews. 

With filibuster squibs and speeches, 

To think there still should be such wretches, 

As dare attempt the soul's conversion 

By means of physical coercion, 

It helps anew the agitation, 

And all the public indignation, 

That Young America extracts 

From plaints of violated pacts, 

'Tween foreign freemen and our States, 

Which Papal Rome, 'tis said, creates. 

It tries on this side the Atlantic 

To raise those riots worse than frantic — 

Which, as at Louisville, some Prentice 

The arch apostle to foment is. 

In short, our President's election, 

On the adoption or rejection 

Of resolutions pro and con. 

Regarding a decision 

Of this vexed point, perhaps depends — 

Such of small things the mighty ends 

Whether this lad be rebaptizcd, 

Or as a Hebrew cicatrized. 

But is it not a patent truth 

That this much talked of little youth, 

His Hebrew birth and rites -in view, 

Is less a Christian than a Jew ? 

» 
Whether the lad be circumcised, 

Or by our sprinkling Christianized, 

With Hardshells matters not a jot — 

He must be wholly dipped, if not; 

To them both rites are just the same, 

49 



BURDEN OP THE SOUTH. 



For neither can confer a claim 

Or title to a place in heaven, 

Nor ground for faith in sins forgiven. 

IX. 

Soon as the boy becomes of ao"e, 

He may, by right of heritage, 

Choose calling, counti-y, home, or creed, 

And be as others free in deed. 

We do not advocate the laws 

Which hold him now in Papal claws, 

For parents, guardians are by nature 

Not barred by crime or legislature 

Of their own offspring's mode of faith, 

And all that fairly goes therewith. 

Until they reach that riper age 

Which gives them Freedom's heritage. 

We only deem it not our duty. 

On points extrinsical and knotty, 

To interfere with other nations 

By raobocratic improbations. 

X. 

There are some grievances at home 
To be redressed before we roam* 
Like errant knights to seek adventures, 
By right of conquest or debentures. 
Hundreds of negro children yearly, 
By their own parents loved as dearly 
As young Mortara is by his. 
Through Jew or Gentile avarice, 
Are kidnapped for a sacrifice: 
If sons, to Molochs on plantations. 
Their wages, stripes and imprecations, — 
50 



SCHISxM AMONG TEE METHODISTS. 



If daughters, to domestic stews, 
And all the woe that thence ensues, — • 
Or sons and daughters both alike 
Disdained and trodden as a tike ; 
For such the fruit which slavery yields 
Alike in domiciles and fields ; 
Yet no remonstrance must be heard — ■ 
Our hearts against their wrongs are barred. 

XI. 

Many who would excite a war a- 
Boat this urchin Jew Mortara, 
Would strangle freemen for a vote 
Tending a rival to promote 
To any office, pension, power 
Which law and justice would secure, 
Or fitness designate to be 
The meed of honest men and free. 
Thousands on thousands of those knaves 
Who most abu^e their wretched slaves, 
Who laugh at liberty and creeds 
la full-blood negroes, or half-breeds. 
Viewing all such as merely chattel, 
In no whit better than their cattle. 
Are found the loudest freedom boasters 
In all those anti-Popery musters ! 
*' Our land of liberty and light 
No longer from the cursed blight 
Of Jesuits, demagogues, and Popes 
Shall suff"er ; help them all the ropes, 
The hands, the hearts, the lives, the hopes 
Of breeders, fillibustcrs, pirates: 
Renouncing all that now evirates, 
51 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



(Except four millions of our niggers, 
Domestic choppers, reapers, diggers, 
And inquilines an equal number,* 
Whom natives view as so raiiuh lumber), 
Renouncing all that now evirates, 
— We still recite — the speech of pirates, 
Our laws, our creeds, our constitutions, 
Our homes, our altars, institutions, . 
No longer from the cursed blight, 
The clouds, the darkness, and the night 
Of Rome shall suffer ! God Almighty ! 
By Thee we swear ! look down in pity !"f 

* Civis Tnquilinuft. — TAi'U. 

t In that piece of Know-Nothing Rodomontade called Stanhope Burleigh, or 
Tlie Jesuits in our Homes, is an engraving by Orr, which represents tlie hero of the 
talc (Stanhope himself) as the type of a haudsoine South-Western man, with a Hash 
vest and cravat, a faultless figure, gentlemanly features, an Indian hunting shirt, 
tight, very tight ])ants, and vehement gestures, powerfully aided by his hat gvasped 
liercely in his left hand and lifted to his ear. His eye — it does not appear that he 
has more than one — is in a tine frenzy rolling. His hair, though somewhat dis- 
heveled, is not sufficiently wild or excrementitious for a man in such a towering 
rage. He should be painted, as an Irish critic once observed of a person in a situa- 
tion somewhat similar, more " like the devil in a high wind ;" for which a pair of 
feet, rather cloven, wliich he has, and a swallow-tailed coat, which he has not^ would 
have admirably fitted him. 

His oath, a more terrible one by far than that of Lars Porsena of Qlusium, is 
recorded in the following most original strain : Almighty God ! witness mc ! for I 
swear in thy presence, and by my lost and murdered Geuevra, that my heart and 
my hands, my life, my fortune, and my sacred lionor, are freely offered a sacrifice to 
my country. This land of liglil, truth, and liberty, shall suffer under the blighting 
curse of demagogues, Jesuitism, and foreign iniluence, no longer ! Be thou my 
helper ! Mark the sequel, gentle reader, of this wonderful adjuration. The cold 
gray twilight liad now brought in the dawning of a day wliich was to save the repub- 
lic of Washington. 

Here again the engraver is at his work with a figure of Washington, the fixthcr of 
his country, holding a sword in his hand, and pointing down behind the wings of a 
s])read eagle towards the Constitution of the U. S., from which a huge serpent is 
rising in deadly struggle with tlie eagle, whose talons arc fastened on the serpent's 
neck, and his beak in close pro.xiinity with the bifid or trifid tongue and glaring 
eyes of that venomous monster. It does not appear that the sword has pierced the 
beast, or that the talons of the eagle arc so fixed upon his neck as to preclude the 
possil)ility of a fatal bite. 

We liad for the first lime finished the perusal of the tremendous oath referred to, 
when a newspaper reached us which told of the ijreaching of Father Somebody, a 

52 



SCHISM AMONG THE METHODISTS. 



UNITARIANS. 

XII. 

To Unitarian citizens are due, 
With justice, truth, humanity in view, 
Our fervid praise ; behold their Channing's name, 
x\nd Adams, hallowed in the roll of fame, 
And Emerson, with varied learning fraught, 
A fount of Avisdom and a mine of thought, 
Of genius, worth, and wit a golden pledge, 
For Gordian knots a scymiter and sledge ; 
And Burritt, guardian of a well profound, 
A key to open, and a line to sound, 
Alike prepared to measure earth and sky, 
A comet's tail, the palpus of a fly;* 
Pierrepont and Phillips, Garrison and Hall, 
Men fearless, frank, unbiassed, liberal. 
Admiring nations view the glorious goal 
To which they press in rivalry of soul, 
Untrammelled or by favor or by fear. 
They view the prize and see the garland near. 
With Clarkson, Buxton, Wilberforce they strive 
The yokes to break, the manacles to rive, 
The yokes and manacles that bind a slave, 
And hopeless thraldom on the spirit grave. 
Shall Webster, Clay — their equal in renown 
As statesman, writer, orator — Calhoun 
Thus brightly to posterity go down ? 

Romish priest in full canonicals, in one of the Chambers of Congress. So much for 
the Know-Nothing oath of Stanhope Burleigh. 

The sole office of this Know-Nothing eagle seems to be to strangle and lacerate 
all poor foreigners who seek protection under its wings. What if it had so treated 
the fathers of those Know-Nothings, or some elder or younger brothers of their 
families. Merciful eagle ! Cowering, not to protect, hvLiio dextroy! 

* See Geography of the Heavens, and other works by E. B. 



53 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Descend they may with perishing- renown. 

And why ? Because they were not Freedom's friends, 

But shaped by tortuous policy their ends. 

Instead of nobly putting forth their might 

As able advocates of truth and right, 

They labored on with ceaseless might and main, 

To forge the collar and to bind the chain 

On Slavery's neck — a sinking, damning curse ! 

In crime's black cataiogue, what sin is worse ? 

CASSIUS M. CLAY. 

XIII. 

Who first of Roman warriors hio-ht 

Was Coriolanus ; scarce in fight 

Has more renown than gallant Clay, ^ 

The hero of our humble lay ; 

Or was to woman's fondest feelings 

More true in all the heart's revealings. 

XIV. 

Rome's warrior, urged by pride and wrath, 

In evil hour forsook the path 

Of duty ; but nor fear, nor blame, 

Nor hate, nor interest, nor shame, 

Nor passion, prejudice, nor love. 

Could Clay to honor recreant prove ; 

Nor heaving depths, nor lowering skies. 

Nor maddening crowds, nor threatening cries. 

Nor all the arts or powers of hell 

In Freedom's fight his spirit quell. 

XV. 

Proud to the proud, but to the lowly, 
By fortune's frowns made melancholy, 

54 



SCHISM AMONG THE METHODISTS. 



None ever wore a kinder face, 
Or rendered favors with more grace, 
Or with more courtesy received, 
Or with more sympathy relieved. 



XVI. 

Such is the Cassius of our time, 
So gallant, just, humane, sublime, 
With figure cast in classic mould, 
And soul of energies untold. 
A Shakspeare's genius should set forth 
His matchless chivalry and worth ; 
Or Garrick, skilled with magic art 
To show the spirit and the heart. 
The gait the mien, the eagle eye, 
The impress of true majesty. 



XVII. 

A Koman lady could rejoice. 

And thank the Gods with heart and voice, 

That, though great Scipio's daughter, she 

Preferred the rank and dignity 

Of that scarce less illustrious name, 

The Gracchi's mother, and the fame 

For wisdom, eloquence, and might 

With which they battled for the right ; 

As Tribunes faithful to the cause 

Of Roman citizens and laws — 

Yea, battled, conquered, bled, and died 

To curb the insolence and pride 

Of fierce patricians, leagued to be 

The enemies of liberty. 



55 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



xviir. 
But nobler still the task to break 
The captive exile's bonds, and wake 
The spirit to the glorious hope, 
The height, the breadth, the length, the scope 
Of freedom's longings, and the strife 
For all worth fighting for in life. 
This Clay has done : Cornelia's brother, 
Cornelia's sons — yea, she, their mother, 
To Clay, the father, mother, son. 
Must yield the palm by merit won. 



XIX. 

Oh ! Henry, when thy name shall cease, 
His will continue to increase 
In cloudless splendor, more and more 
Each year and century than before. 
" Honor shall come, a pilgrim gray,* 
To bless the turf that wraps that clay, 
And freedom shall awhile repair 
To dwell a weeping hermit there," 
Thence rising spread her eagle wing, 
And o'er the globe her segis fling. 



XX. 

And such a man is found in Chase, 

Whom nor the love of power nor place, 

Nor physical nor moral force. 

Could turn a moment from his course — 

That royal road of chivalry, 

Eternal war on Slavery ! 

* Collins. 
5G 



LINES ADDRESSED TO THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 



LINES ADDRESSED TO THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

KURAL SCENES, LIBERTY, RACHEL BARKER, LOUISA, LITTLE RACHEL OF 

POUGHKEEPSIE. 

Friends of mankind, tlirice hail! most blameless men, 

Who hold the faith of Barclay and of Penn, 

With hope and love instinct, and quiet life. 

While all around are. bitterness and strife. 

In moral truth and philosophic worth, 

Has ever faith more goodly fruit brought forth? 

From frugal cheer deriving vigorous health, 

From honest toil or competence or wealth, 

Not prone to squander ever-precious time 

In aught that leads to vanity or crime. 

Though calm, resolved, though gentle, firm, and true 

To help a slave, a tyrant to eschew. 

Not ours the bootless purpose to declaim 
Against your tenets, teaching to condemn 
Stoles, rochets, bands, and surplices, and gowns, 
Cowls croziers, sceptres, truncheons, triple crowns, 
Pulpits, and feasts, and fasts, and funeral knells. 
As heathen rites, or Papalistic spells ; 
Suffice it with the oracles of God, 
Your faith is based on Christ's atoning blood. 

That bond and freemen may alike rejoice, 
Be honest Lincoln now your willing choice — 
Lincoln himself a friend, or more than friend — 
The wrong to right, the rightful to defend ; 

57 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



To keep tlie heritage, ■which Freedom gave 
To freemen s sons, untrodden by a slave ; 
Our Union's flag with honor to transmit, 
To add new stars, and lost ones reunite ; 
Studious our every blessing to increase, 
The last — not least — a free and truthful press. 
Free trade, free homesteads, freedom of debate 
On all the high concerns which agitate 
The human heart, and lift the soul on high 
To*peace and hope and immortality. 

Where erst the wolf and panther prowled for prey. 
And murderous Indians close in ambush lay, 
Your lives of peaceful industry unfold, 
Saturnian scenes, or purer age of gold ; 
From hill to hill, extending far and near. 
Hark the shrill clarion of the mountaineer, 
The hounds' full chorus, and the hunter's cries. 
The whizzing missile, echo's quick replies ; 
Or, as a comet sweeping o'er the plains, 
The shrieks and thundering of the passing trains ; 
And hark ! the clamor of the neighboring mill, 
The hoarse, loud cataract, and the whispering rill, 
The teamster's lash, as o'er his laggard yokes 
He plies his whip in well dissembled strokes, 
The milk-maid's carol, and the ploughman's song 
— Some simple ditty in their native tongue. 
First heard, mayhap, from some enamoured swain, 
Or on the Tweed, the Shannon, or the Rhine — 
All in discordant concord, high, deep-toned. 
Harsh, murmuring, shrill, in echoing strains rebound. 
Clang, vibrate, jar, or mutter o'er the ground. 
Those fleecy flocks, those numerous herds behold, 
Or by the stream, the meadow-land, or wold, 
58 



LINES ADDRESSED TO THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

See vineyards, orchards, gardens, waving corn 
In dewy fragrance greet the rising morn, 
And, over all, contentment from above, • 
With social peace, and joy, and gentle love. 

Yet, not the fruits which ripen o'er the scene. 
Nor hills nor valleys robed in living green, 
Nor all the songsters of the neighboring grove, 
Nor all the cooing murmurs of the dove. 
Nor herds, nor flocks,' nor breeze, nor sparkling stream. 
Nor aught of bliss Arcadian poets dream, 
Not Hermon's top, nor Sharon's roseate bowers, 
' Nor Carmel's height, nor Lebanon's fair towers, 
Nor all of Eden in sweet Wyoming, 
Ere Outalissi, charged with Julia's ring,* 
To Albert took that token, and the child 
To him entrusted — " pilgrim of the wild " 
Now singing to the boy his parting song. 
Who slept on Albert's couch, nor heard his friendly tongue : 

Not these more dear, more welcome to the heart, 
Nor yet the march of Commerce, Science, Art, 
Than is that Freedom which you bravely claim 
For all mankind, in substance as in name — 
Freedom of conscience, Nature's sacred gift, 
Of which no mortal justly is bereft, 
Or ever can be without obvious wrong. 
Provided he professes to belong 
To one Almighty, Just, Eternal God, 
Creator, Ruler, Lord, and Sovereign Good ; 
Nor has your freedom ever given cause 
To laxness or of discipline or laws ; 

* Campbell's Gertrude of "Wyoming. Part the First. 
59 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Once owning slaves, you looked to set them free, 
On all enjoining peace and amity. 

Sweet Rachael Barker ! to thy name we owe 
Freedom, alike from bondage and from woe. 
For poor Louise ; thrice happy was the day 
When first we saw tliy cloak of sober gray, 
Thy winsome bonnet, and thy dainty feet 
In fitting shoon — how simple, yet how neat! 
Thy faultless figure too, thy lovely face, 
Both living types of innocence and grace ; 
Thy lily hands, thy heaving breasts, thy sighs, 
The tears of pity in thy dove-like eyes ; 
That glossy hair disparted on thy brow. 
Those ruby lips, the dimples which bestow 
A modest radiance o'er thy rosy cheek, 
Where peace and love a blissful union seek — 
Such bliss was onr's, when from thy pearly teeth, 
We heard thy words, inhaled thine olive breath.* 

Yes, gentle maid, to memory ever dear, 

Meek, comely, prudent, generous, and sincere, 

Thy looks how kind — how bland, how more than mild 

Thy words of comfort to that woe-worn child : 

"Tell me, Louisa, tell me, do, I pray, 

Why dost thou weep, child ! tell me that I may ' 

Thy pains assuage, allay thy present grief, 

Or hope in future to impart relief." 

" Young mistress, save me from those brutal blows, 
These bleeding wounds his cruelties disclose," 
The girl replied. "Oh! buy me; who but thee 
Will dare to help me in this misery ?" 

* The Sweet Flowering Olive, as we have seen it in Louisiana, seems to combine 
the fragrance of the Yellow Jessamine, Mignionette, and Magnolia. 

60 



SONG. 



" Most horrid system," Rachael sobbed aloud ; 
"Who shall arrest those streams of human blood 
Poured out in anger by a brother's hand, 
To stain, pollute, and desecrate our land ? 
Which now, with mouth wide open to God's throne, 
The foul libation grimly swallows down, 
Invoking vengeance on the murderer's head — " 
She ceased, nor finished what she had to say ; 
That sightless eye-ball would not brook delay. 
She then resumed : " My brother will this hour 
For me, poor child, thy liberty procure. 
Thy master, doubtless, will advantage take 
Of our good feelings, and a bargain make 
On such conditions as he hopes to see 
Rejected now ; but leave thou that to me." 

The bargain made, Louisa, free as air. 

Is soon transferred to Joshua Barker's care. 

Safe in New York, she thinks of Southern slaves, 

And oft the ransom of her mother craves. 

What more the friends have done, or yet may do, 

If not in 8pee.cl^ see chronicled in Stoioe.'" 



SOJSTG. 

LITTLE RACHAEL OF POUGHKEEPSIE. 

Our heroine is not the lady wlio lectured some years ago in Louisiana and the 
CaroUnas, hut another of nearly the same name, now residing, we loarn, not one 
hundred miles from Poughkeepsie. 

What time the violet appears 
Our Muse wouW fain indite a sonnet, 

On little Rachael's blushing ears, 
Half seen beneath that winsome bonnet ; 

But soon the dew-drops on her cheek, 

* Query — Mrs. II. B. Stowe. 
61 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Hor bosom's swell, her heart's emotion, 
Would seem more loudly to bespeak 
A parent's care, than bard's devotion. 

Caps, slippers, collars, glossy silks 
Derive from Rachael some divineness; 

But what so precious as the milk 
Of Rachacl's all-subduing kindness ! 

In every throb her heart records. 
In every pulse of Christian feeling 

For poor Louise, no power of words 
Can half express that heart's revealings. 

Whate'er among the Grecian Isles 
The Rhodian artist most impresses, 

In features, forms, and magic smiles, 
Must yield to Rachael's artless graces. 

A tranquil joy is her's — a mind, 
In every look, divinely glowing, 

Than wit or genius more refined. 
With Mercy's sweetest balm o'erflowing. 

Ah ! nothing reck'st thou, Rachael ! who, 
In humble strains, invokes thy pleading, 

For Milly and poor Odcrick now 
As for Louise once interceding. 

Did Bamfield, Moore, Carew* succeed 
Among our friends to aid the gypsey. 

Go thou for slaves, in faith, God speed ! 
Quoth lovely Rachael of Poughkeepsie. 

*B. M.Carcw, an eccentric but most benevolent English gentleman, received 
more favor and material aid from the Friends in Pennsylvania (in his efforts to 
improve the social condition of the Gypsies), than from all otlior classes of people 
In Europe or America. See his Autobiography. 

62 



RHYMES FOR THE YOUNG. 



RHYMES FOR THE YOUNG. 

A SOUTHERN FAMILY PICTURE. — TRAGIC DRAMA. 
LITTLE FANNY. 

I, 

Yes, Fanny, tliou dear little creature, 
Joy, innocence, beauty, and truth, 

So brighten thine every feature, 

Thou seemest the Goddess of Youth. 

II. 
"With looks so bewitchingly smiling. 

With spirits so blithesome and free, 
With manner so sweetly beguiling. 

Say, who can help thinking of thee ? 

III. 
Go, charmer, and joyously follow 

Thy hoop in its serpentine chase ; 
Good Fred, as he pleases, may holloa. 

While you and old Brush run a race,* 

IV. 

Thy fawn, pretty Billy, is jealous 

That dogs should such fellowship dare, 

While he, standing near, is so zealous 
In all thy amusements to share. 

V. 

He arches his neck, his bells tinkle, 
He stretches his snow-dappled sides, 

His bright eyes with ecstacy twinkle, 
His time for the race he abides. 

* Fred and Brush. The former her brother, the latter her dog. 
G3 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



VI. 
Her prison a moment forgetting, 

Poor Poll laughs and screams with delight ; 
Then seems as a captive regretting, 

She wants the bless'd freedom of flight. 

VII. 

Close by thy loved pony is feeding, 
And viewing thy frolics astance, 

But like a good horse shows his breeding. 
As taught by thy knight of the lance. 

VIII. 

Thy linnet is warbling its ditty, 

Thy ring-doves are cooing their loves ; 

A chorus so jocund and witty 
Has seldom enlivened the grove. 

IX. 

Thy father, thy sister, thy mother 

Partake of thy pleasures, sweet child ; 

Thy servants, thy friends — and another. 
Of care by thy pastimes beguiled. 

z. 

The lambkins are sporting around them, 
The swallows are wheeling their flight, 

The mocking-bird tries to confound them — 
He echoes the shriek of the kite. 

XI. 

Chameleons are glancing in sunshine, 

And Cicada? bound as perdue ; 
And chaliced like prisms in yioonshine, 

The humming-bird revels in dew. 

64 



EHTMES FOR THE YOUXG. 



XII. 

See gold-fish disporting ia fountains, 
With varying motion and size, 

As erst in their lake on the mountains 
The raptured beholder surprise — 

XIII. 

Now wheeling in cycles elliptic, 
Now trolling in frolicsome play, 

Now seeking in crevices cryptic 
To shut out the beams of the day. 

XIV. 

The light-footed squirrels are leaping 
And skipping from bower to bower; 

Or archly and timidly peeping, 
They chatter or frolic or cower. 

XV. 

And locusts unnumbered, in chorus, 
And sonnjsters from neiarhborina: trees. 

And bull-frogs, with voices sonorous, 
All chime with the murmur of bees. 

XYI. 

And swans from their home in yon island 
Superbly survey their domain ; 

And loud-cawing rooks from the highland 
Rejoice, with their breasts full of grain. 

XVII. 

The meadow which slopes to the inlet. 
The willow-moss, cypress, and vines, 

And live oak and orange, are sunlit, 
And eglantines, hollies, and pines. 

65 



BURDEX OF THE SOUTH. 



XVIII. 

The violet, crocus, and daisy, 
The rose-bud, the pink, daffodil, 

Instructing the proud and the lazy, 
Enamel the valley and hill. 

XIX. 

And mignionettes, -wall-flowers, sweet briars 
Are here — not to torture the brow, 

With lilies and roses as tiars. 
By emperors worn ere now. 

XX. 

And olives, sweet jessamines, dairies, 
Magnolias, breathing of kine — 

Meet luncheon for legions of fairies, 
On smell of new hay wont to dine. 

XXI. 

Cascades from the neighboring gorges. 
And steamers are heard from afar, 

And engines, and clanging of forges 
For new fashioned weapons of war. 

XXII. 

The baying of hounds, and of horses 
The neighings — the hunter's shrill horn, 

And chanticleer's screaming discourses, 
Enliven the eve as the morn. 

XXIII. 

Nor wanting for home play are billiards, 
Chess, angling, or shady retreats. 

Nor books for the studious, nor galliards. 
Nor sherbets for tropical heats. 

66 



RHYMES FOR THE YOUNG. 



XXIV. 

A thousand times dearer than any 
Loved object in nature or art, 

Wast thou, our divine little Fanny, 
The joy and delight of our heart. 

XXV. 

Now changes the scene — as one bleeding 
And wailing sinks down at thy feet, 

And fugitives, piteously pleading, 
Thy loved intercession entreat. 

XXVI. 

Thy father's o'erseer in his fuiy 

His dogs on their tracks did unleash, 

And urged them to chase and to worry, 
To rend and to mangle their flesh. 

XXVII. 

Thou weepest, my dear little maiden ! 

The color has fled from thy cheek ; 
Thy torments, poor Sally ! so sadden 

Her heart, she refuses to speak. 

XXVIII. 

Ah me ! she replied, I am dying ; 

Oh God ! make the black people free ! 
My spirit, O Father ! is flying — 

Its refuse is onlv in thee ! 

XXIX. 

Farewell, dearest child 1 and forever — 
Our strenuous efforts shall show 

How strong our resolves are to sever 
The fetters of bondage and woe 1 

67 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



LINES TO MARY,* 

THE SISTER OF FANNT. 
I. 

Mary ! when I saw thee last, 

Who thought thy bloom would f;ide so fast ? 

Thy lovely features thus o'ercast 

With sickness and with sorrow ? 
And are those matchless graces gone, 
Which all enraptured gazed upon, 
Like roses which this morn have blown 

To wither ere the morrow ? 

II. 

Mary, those eyes will glow once more 
With magic lustre as before. 
And health and happiness restore 

Thine every charm and grace : 
'Tis thus the glorious Queen of Night, 
From darkest shades to cloudless light 
Emerged, in golden livery dight, 

Her cycle loves to trace. 



Mary, dry up those scalding tears, 
Dispel those gloomy doubts and fears, 
Still hope for happy days and years, 
To festive joys unbend thee ; 



* Mary having returned from school soon after the death of Fanny, was so 
aflected by tliat event that doubts were entertained of her recovery. She is sup- 
posed to be addressed as above in the presence of her mother, who consequently 
becomes one of the dramatis persona;. 

G8 



LINES TO MARY. 



Nor tliea forget the friends who now 
Lament the change that marks thy brow, 
When Fortune, with a lowly bow, 
And all her train attend thee. 

IV. 

You bid me dry these flowing tears, 
Dispel those gloomy doubts and fears, 
Think hopefully of future years, 

To cheerfulness unbend me. 
Ah me ! would not my sister's shade, 
And Sally's (our poor murdered maid), 
Should aught but grief my heart invade, 

Arise and reprehend me ? 

V. 

How could such nameless horrors be, 

And I in social gayety 

Find aught but painful memory ? 

No, sister, never, never ! 
To festive scenes they call in vain ; 
I ne'er shall seek they- joys again — 
Till slaves their liberty obtain, •* 

Till we their bonds dissever. 

VI. 

Mother, I always thought it wrong 
That we, because we are more strong. 
Should negroes tear with whip and thong, 

And worry them with hounds.* 
I ever shall this wrong oppose, 
The more that now I see the woes. 
And feel those agonizing blows 
From Sally's ghastly wounds. 

* See the notes at the end of these rhymes. 

m 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



VII. 

"VMiat else, my child, but scenes of woe 
From monstrous crimes and errors flow ? 
Who dares the seeds of slavery sow, 

Like Pharaoh reaps in anguish. 
Better to work for daily bread, 
Better be like your sister — dead. 
Than thus be kept in constant dread, 

In misery to languish ! 

VIII. 

Tour father, dearest, thinks with me. 
Admits the ills of slavery. 
But says that full indemnity 

Must herald manumission. 
A legal evil so entailed, 
Howe' or detested and bewailed, 
Cannot and will not be repealed 

Except on that condition. 

"We knew a few years since, at the South, a wretch who kept "negro-dogs" 
(j. e. blood-hounds), and made it quite a profitable business to tempt slaves to run 
away from their owners, tliat he might obtain the reward offered for tlieir capture, 
which, of course, with the aid of those dogs, and his knowledge of the retreats 
of his victims, was very easily effected. The spoils were divided witli his asso- 
ciates. When the trick was discovered, he was mercilessly lynched, and deported 
from the parish in wliich he had exercised his calling. 

This man was exceedingly urgent upon a neighbor of S. R., intending a visit to 
Scotland, to procure for liira, at any price, a half-dozen Buccleugh, or perhaps Argyle 
beagles, which he thought be could train to the work of blood-hounds. He was 
so crest-fallen, however, after his "misfortune," as he naively called it, that ho 
never repeated his request. 

We believe it was beyond the descriptive powers of poor Hugh Miller (and who 
in description ever equalled him ?) to paint in words the pliysique of that miscreant 
Blave-catcher. He was of medium height, rather short and thick-set, wore some- 
times a slouched hat, sometimes a foxy, battered, high-crowned silk hat, white 
round the rim. The rest of his outer clothing was of Hoosier woolen homespun, 
of the inevitable brown color, half-threadbare. His hair, hands, face, and neck 
were red, strong, thick, and dirty. His eyes — Ye Godsl what a pairl — looked at 
one and the same time to all points of the compass, and with such marvellous 

70 



LINES TO MART. 



nictitating and contractile powers as we never saw equalled or approached in the 
foulest night-bird, or the most ravenous and predaceous of beasts and winged 
creatures. He looked, by turns, shy, servile, familiar, and murderous. The 
loathing and contempt with which he was universally regarded, even in a slave- 
country, seemed to have brought ever uppermost in his thoughts the pious wish 
of Caligula. , 

We saw him once, on the strength of an old job — done for pay — for the benefit 
of a Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana, approach that functionary with a show of 
audacious and jaunty familiarity ; but the look and manner of the Governor con- 
vinced him that base spies, traitors, and hangmen, must never presume upon an 
equality with their employers. He was paid for his services, such as they were, 
and there ended the acquaintance. 

There is, at this moment, in the immediate neighborhood of S. R., another who 
follows (with better success so far) this respectable calling. His dogs do not look 
very formidable, embracing, as they do, Goldsmith's varieties — " mongrel, puppy, 
whelp, and hound, and curs of low degree ;" but he boasts greatly of their sagacity 
and prowess. They scorn to take the nux vomica, or any other pill or preparation, 
from the hands of a nigger. One of them, he afiQrms, so seizes upon a hand armed 
with a knife to destroy him as to prevent the possibility of its use. A slave only, 
we imagine, could fail to disable such vermin. A good Sharpe's rifle or two, in 
ordinary hands, would soon dispose of the whole pack. It was probably for some 
such purpose that Mr. Beecher recommended the Sharps. If so, we say, "Ditto 
to Mr. Eeecher!" 

There are, in the South, more ladies than is generally imagined who, like Mary's 
mother, reprobate slavery. They alone have the courage to denounce it in the 
family circle, and among their neighbors. They know its fijuits! Nor are 
there wanting a few of them who, before strangers and visitors, express, on fitting 
occasions, their sentiments on those fruits. We have heard more than one lady, 
in defiance of much telegraphic frowning, speak admiringly of Mr. Beecher, Mrs. 
Stowe, G. Smith, H. Greeley, Messrs. Seward, Sumner, the Jovely Lady Sutherland, 
and other advocates of the abolition of slavery. 

Mary's parents, and nearly all owners of slaves, nay, most of our most zealous 
abolitionists, are at issue on this point witli Mr. Helper, the author of " The Im- 
pending Crisis," the best anti-slavery book ever published in this or any other 
country. Mr. H. would have slaves emancipated and deported at the sole expense 
of their owners. There can be no doubt whatever of the justice of this course ; 
but on the score of its practicability we have our misgivings. 

In the Compendium of "The Impending Crisis" (pp. 86, 87, &c.), are some mem- 
orable passages on this subject. We can only instance one or two, or perhaps 
three or four, paragraphs : 

" To turn tiie slaves away from their present homes — away from all the property 
and means of support which their labor has mainly produced, would be unpardon- 
ably cruel, exceedingly unjust. Still more cruel and unjust would it be, however, 
to the non-slaveholding whites, no less than to the negroes, to grant further tole- 



71 



:^URDEX OF THE SOUTH. 



ration to the existence of slavery. In any event — come what will, transpire what 
nui}' — the system must be abolished. The evils, if any, which are to result from 
abolition, cannot, by any manner of means, be half as great as the evils which 
are certain to overtake us in case of its continuance. The perpetuation of slavery 
is the climax of iniquity. 

" Considered in connection with the righteous claim of wages for services which 
the negroes might bring against their masters, . . . the slaveholders would not 
only be stripped of every dollar, but they would become in law, as they are in 
reality, the hopeless debtors of the myriads of unfortunate slaves, white and 
black, who are now cringing and fawning and festering around them." 

Again : '" Let us, by an equitable system of legislation, . . . compel tlie slave- 
holders to do something like justice to their negroes, by giving each and every one 
of them sixty dollars in current money: then let us charter all the ocean steamers, 
packets, and clipper-ships that can be had on reasonable terms, and keep them 
constantly plying between the ports of America and Africa, until all the slaves 
who are here held in bondage shall enjoy freedom in the land of their fathers." 

Mr. Helper is a young man, and in his personal appearance remarkable. 
His height is, we believe, six feet, one inch and a half or two inches. His figure 
is excellent; not overburdened with flesh, but straight, lithe, graceful, and vigor- 
ous. His weight does not probably exceed one hundred and seventy pounds. His 
hair — like his beard, strong, thick, and somewhat bushy — is black as a raven's 
wing. His complexion — a southern one — is such as usually belongs to such hair. 
We will not say of his eye (he is blessed with a jm/r) that it is like Holbein's, as 
described by Allen Cunningham — "an eye not likely to endure contradiction;" 
but most assuredly we can and do say that it is an eye not calculated to invite 
aggression — for, verily, the aggressor will do well to beware 1 He is singularly 
temperate in all his habits — mild, brave, courteous, generous, pacific, and deter- 
mined to the last degree. In him, the Shakspearian motto of his work is no 
empty boast. 

He doubtless feels bitterly his exile and alienation from his native State ; and 
still more so, probably, the timid counsels of his friends and advisers, and the 
stolid indifTerencc with which so many now regard the great struggle now going 
on between slavery and freedom. 

Of Professor lledrick and Mr. Underwood, Mr. Helper remarks, that the former 
was a short while since banished from his home in Virginia, and the latter (the 
accomplished Hedrick) driven from his College professorship in North Carolina, 
.... ostracised by the despotic slave power, and compelled to seek a refuge 
from its vengeance in States where the principles of Freedom are better understood. 

Kossuth comes among us from Hungar}', as a great orator and patriot, and is 
all but worshipped ; though, like those of other great popular idols, his triumphs 
were of short duration. But here are men of talents, of virtue, and of patriotism, 
who, with no hope of reward in this life save the testimony of a good conscience, 
have sacrificed every thing to their principles, in behalf of a poor, degraded, help- 
less, enslaved race of men, yet they daily walk the streets of New York without 



72 



SENATOR SEWARD. 



either the Outos Ekeinos of the multitude, or any one caring a straw whether they 
have a sufficiency of the commonest necessaries of daily subsistence 1 

In reference to pecuniary indemnity as a sine qiia non to the manumission of 
slaves, S. R. entirely concurs in the views of the parents of the cliildren made 
the subject of the above rhymes. To those views lie has given full expression 
toward tlie conclusion of some preceding rhymes on Barth, Livingstone, and the 
Kings of Commerce. 

Mr. Helper has, within the last two or three months, acquired a most enviable 
celebrity. His work is most vehemently denounced, and the indorsement of its 
principles deemed by the pro-slavery faction in Congress a cause sufficient for ex- 
clusion from the Speakership of the House. "What a comment upon our boasted 
freedom ! It affords, however, the highest possible evidence of the sterling merit 
of the work. In short, its statistics are overwhelming — its reasoning imanswer- 
ablo. . Hinc lachrymce. What there is libellous or seditious in it, only a blind and 
bitter partisan can discover. Mr. H. errs, if at all, in good company — with 
Brougham, Macaulay, Humboldt; with Jefferson, Washington, and Clay; "with 
poets, heroes, statesmen, sages of all nations, ancient and modern. If all these 
are wrong, then we are wrong. On the other hand, however, if they are right, 
we are right, for, in effect, we only repeat and endeavor to enforce their precepts." 
— Impending Crisis, p. 170. 



RHYMES 



ADDRESSED TO A FEW STATESMEN, AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED PERSONS, 
IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES. 

SENATOR SEWARD. 

Where, Seward, shall we find among statesmen a mind 

As thine so unflinching and brave? 
So full of pure zeal for the public weal. 

So kind and so good to the slave ? 
Deep, clear, comprehensive, nor yet undimensive, 

Thy knowledge, experience, and skill ; 
Eschewing retortion, give all things proportion 

Befitting their worth and thy will. 
Thy bitterest foes are constrained to depose 

That, throughout the most fiery debate, 
73 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Thou u'ouldst not a jot, and perhaps thou couldst not, 

Of the high-bred patrician abate. 
Proceed ! thy example will serve for a sample 

Of Senators worthy the name, 
■ In a nation like ours, unsurpassed in its powers, 

Its eloquence, glory, and fame ! 

LORD brougham:.— BARON HUMBOLDT.— LORD PALMERSTON, ETC. 

I. 
Great Brougham and Humboldt, twin thunder and suiibolt. 

Continue as ever to be. 
And thou, my Lord John,* to thy lasting renown, 

The friend of the slave and the free. 
Thou, Palraerston, follow, with brow of Apollo, 

Thy daring, thy knowledge, thy skill, 
Thy generous zeal for poor Africa's weal. 

Thy genius, the force of thy will ; 
Thy promptness in action, thy tact amidst faction 

To pilot the vessel of State, 
Amidst tempests and waves, to a harbor that saves 

From the depths of political hate. 
To these we refer, they rao.st loudly declare 

The worth which so many can feel, 
And give to thy name, in the Temple of Fame, 

A place between Chatham and Peel. 

II. 
We, Malrasbury ! thee would invoke in our plea, 

And Clarendon, ever the same, 
And Derby and Althorpe, Bright, Cobden, and Calthorpe, 

And Wilberforce, foremost in fame ! 
And loveliest Queen ! though an ocean between 
Us an<l thee roll the bed of its waves 
* Lo d John RussoU. 
74 



BRITISH STATESMEN, ETC. 



Is a means in thy hands to unloosen the bands 
Of our down-trodden African slaves. 

III. 

Ye floods, lift your voice ! hills and mountains rejoice ! 

Ye angels, descend upon earth ! 
Men, men! catch the sound, and re-echo around — 

The song of a second new birth ! 
All join in our chorus, with voices sonorous; 

Oh ! take and prolong it again, 
Till earth, sea, and sky, and the stars shout for joy, 
And the welkin repeats the loud strain : 
Soli sit gloria 
Deo — memoria 
Pacis, Victoria ! 
Nobis — amen. 
This, this be the glory of song aud of story, 

Great Queen, to distinguish thee now ; 
Electrical might, and its pencils of light, 
Be the rays that encircle thy brow. 

IV. 

To thee, Cyrus Field, was the problem revealed, 

That, bridging the seas with a chain, 
Our thoughts may take wing in the lightning, and bring 

(As the current or life through the brain) 
All nations from far, wheresoever they are, 

Of one blood, who inherit our globe. 
To union and peace, and fraternal embrace, 

In sympathy's limitless robe. 
Good Lincoln, thy name in the annals of fame 

Is linked with the light of our sphere, 
For tiiine is the glory, to Whig and to Tory, 

To herald the jubilee year, 

75 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



When distance and space, and old time in its race, 

Are spanned by one cosmical cheer. 
Thus echo rejoices, with millions of voices, 

Over continent, island, and sea, 
Thro' the poles, thro' the line, thro' the depths of the mine, 

Alike to the slave and the free, 
The news to impart, that America's heart 

Throbs, Britain, in concert with thee ! 

V. 

Hail, Parker and Greeley, Smith, Phillips, and Silli- 

Man, Beecher and Sumner and Chase ! 
And good Harriet Stowe, to whose genius we owe 

Uncle Tom, the delight of his race !* 
To thee, noble Duchess ! we send, as in purchase 

Of pardon for sins in past years,f 
O'er land and o'er ocean, our heartfelt emotions 

In loud international cheers. 
Hail, Helper ! well named, with thy treatise proclaimed 

To second our honest endeavor,J 
The curse to remove, and the problem resolve 

Which threatens our Union to sever. 
The friend of the slave must be constant and brave ; 

Yet courage most glowing and innate. 
With truth for his shield, failed Sumner a field 

In the lists of our national Senate. 
Blows seldom recoil in a manner to foil 

A brutal assassin aggressor ;§ 

* Uncle Tom was the Titus of his race — Delicice generis humani. The crown 
within his grasp is more precious than the purple and diadem of the Cicsars. 

f Duclioss of Sutlicrland. 

^: 11. R. Helper, the author of the Impending Crisis. 

§ Mr. Helper remarks (p. 15, Compendium): "That wo shall encounter opposi- 
tion wo consider as certain ; perhaps wo may be even subjected to insult and 
violence But we shall siiriuk from no responsibility, and do nothing unbe- 

7Ci 



TO THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND. 



He bides his own time to be cautious^ in crime, 
Avoiding the risks of a cesser. 

VI. 

Hail ! all who would aid in suppressing a trade 

Which plunges whole nations in tears — 
At home and abroad both a curse and a rod, 

A source of perpetual fears. 
Hail ! England's great Queen ! and good Lincoln' amain ! 

Be Justice and Mercy and Power 
Our guerdons of right, and our pillars of light, ■ 

Our rock and impregnable tower. 

Now praise to the Highest, the Mightiest, Nighcst, 

The Wisest, Most Holiest, Best ! 
To men of goodwill, his behests who fulfil, 

Be honor and concord and rest ! 



TO HER GRACE, THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND. 

I. 

Dauntless proceed ! yea, conquering go 
In Freedom's van, with Beecher, Stowe, 
Most noble lady ! to impart 
The promptings of thine own pure heart 
In Freedom's cause ; thy honored name 
We hail as foremost to proclaim 
The slave a man, his wife a mother, 
Both lowly, yet a sister, brother. 

coining a man. "We know how to repel indignity, ancl, if assaulted, shall not fail 
to make the blow recoil upon the aggressor's head." 

We believe that Mr. H. — on one occasion at least, if not more than one, since 
the publication of his work — has been constrained to make good his proiiii.'-i- in 
this matter of aggression. 

vv 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



II. 

lias thou not, gracious lady, been 

Of heaven elect to be a queen ? 

Aye, sooth to say, a queen thou art 

In every leal and honest heart. 

Thy coronet, reward for deeds 

Of love and mercy, far exceeds, 

In worth and splendor, all that glows 

In brilliants o'er thy radiant brows. 

Thy sceptre more than regal sway 

Exerts o'er nations far away ; 

Thy virtues, tutelary powers 

Nor autocrats nor emperors 

In might or majesty approach ; 

Thy fame, without a stain or blotch, 

Nor wrath can wound, nor malice touch; 

Thou art, in short, a queen of queens — 

Queen of our hearts : those aliens 

Who own no other sovereign's might 

In thy supremacy delight; 

Nay, she, the mightiest in command, 

Reveres the matchless Sutherland ! 

Angelic being ! from thy sight 

Shrink into darkest shades of night 

Whate'er of wickedness or sin 

Or stalks abroad or lurks within ! 

III. 
Of mien majestic, mild, and meek, 

Divinely wrought perfection's mould ; 
When rival graces flush thy cheek, 

Truth, goodness, love, their age of gold 
Confess, and Envy with amaze 
Gives willing tribute to thy praise — 
78 



TO THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND. 



Such, angel of tlie house of Gower, 
Thy peerless loveliness and power ! 

IV. 

Reader, contemn the heartless lie 
Which would the Sutherland affy 
To persecution and oppression. 
Within the range of her possession. 
Thou, gracious lady, wouldst not have 
Or man or beast a hapless slave ; 
But free, unchained as highland deer, 
Or as those larks, high poised in air, 
That soar above the clouds, and sing 
Their carols to the new-born Spring ; 
Or bird of Jove, with lordly sweep 
Descending o'er Pomona's steep. 

V. 

Most noble lady ! so humane ! 
Who causes thee a moment's pain, 
Whose slander would, with baleful wing, 
And malice, with envenomed sting. 
Thy stainless name — 
(Aye! stainless as the virgin snow 
On Dornoch's Firth or Birsa Brough)* 
Thy stainless name, along the path 
Between Cape Sable and Cape Wrath,f 

* Dornoch Firth, in Sutherland. Birsa Brough, on the northwest of Pomona, 
the largest of the Orkney Isles. 

f Cape Sahle, the most southern cape in Florida. Cape Wrath, the northern ex- 
tremity of Sutherland and of Great Britain. 

The Hon. Miss A. A. Murray has amply vindicated the present Duchess of 
Sutherland from any share in tlio ejectment or deportation of the Sutherland 
peasantry. 

79 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Assail : or whcreso, land or sea, 
Is redolent of Liberty,* 
That bastard liberty which waves 
Its corsair flag o'er captured slaves — • 
High on a felon's gibbet sw.ung, 
Let carrion vultures rend his tongue ! 

VI. 

Yet, sweetest lady, such the price, 
In calumny and prejudice. 
Which all must pay, who strive to see 
The dawn of Freedom's jubilee. 
If now to thee it secmeth hard, 
Have still in view the great reward 
To those who bind the broken heart, 
Who love good tidings to impart ; 
Beauty, for ashes, joy, for grief, 
The robe of praise, the heart's relief, 
Is theirs to hope in righteousness, 
With everlasting joy and peace ! 



SONG, 

SUPPOSED TO BE "WRITTEN BY ITER GRACE, THE DUCHESS OF SUTHER- 
LAND, AND SUNO BEFORE A LARGE PARTY OF LADIES OF THE 
SOUTHERN STATES OF THE AMERICAN UNIOX. 

I. 

Sisters, greeting! we implore you 

Break from slaves their ff'iHiniT chain ! 
* Lowly, suppliant thus before you, 

* " Toot! toot!" said a gallant Scot, to whom S. R. had readtho passage referred 
to, "Redolent of Liberty, indeed I A man who would assail the Duchess of Suth- 
erland can be redolent only of Whiskey and Tobacco!" 

80 



r' 



SONG. 

Shall we, sisters, plead in vain ? 
Duteous daughters, wives, and mothers 

Are of every cast and shade ; 
We, our fathers, husbands, brothers, 

For the darkest crave your aid. 

II. 
Can you, sisters, in coherence 

With your laws and rules of life, 
Sever children from their parents. 

And the husband from the wife ? 
Think in time, we pray, bethink you, 

What dread woe from bondage springs, 
Feuds domestic, crimes which link you 

With the very worst of kings. 

III. 
Free your slaves / with freedom teach them 

What, in ransom for a soul, 
Heaven has paid; in love beseech them 

Stormy passions to control ; 
Teach them from the living fountain 

Of true wisdom from above, 
As the Saviour on the mountain 

Taught the multitude in love.- 

IV. 

In those arts and rights instruct them. 

Which you know and prize so well, 
And in peace and joy conduct them 

Where they can in safety dwell. 
There, like you, through Freedom's blessing, 

From their altars and their home, 
May they, evermore progressing, 

Sow the seeds of life to come. 
81 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



NEW SONG. 

SL'PPOSED TO BE SUNG BY THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE 
SOUTH, AT CHATTANOOGA. 

I. 

I'll sing a song, a simple soug, 

I've heard it in my motherland; 
'Tis something new, about the U- 

Niversity of Southerland. 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! for motherlands ! 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! for brotherlands ! 
A loosened screw disturbs the U- 

Niversity of Southerland ! 

II. 
We'll read the books our sires have read,* 

No other books in Southei'land 
Shall e'er be read, in school or bed, 

Than mav be read in motherland. 



* The bishops and planters of the South will probably soon build and richly 
endow a University, so-called ; nor can we question they v/ill Gnd men of the 
highest order of talents for its various departments of instruction. "We heartily 
say God-speed to them in the sacred cause of education — for knowledge is light ; 
but to talk of purifying its channels by suppressing in the literature of the world 
all that touches upon slavery in terms of condemn^ion, is the height and depth 
and length and breadth of absurdity ! 

They will have to begin at the Book of Exodus, the most ancient of all works 
on the abolition of human bondage. We need scarcely assure them that the 
number of " freedom shriekers " in subsequent periods of the history of man- 
kind is far too great to be silenced by the secret machinations or open violence of 
pro-slavery advocates. 

The defecation they talk of by the Index Expurgatorius contemplated will be a 
luais a non lucendo. History and poetry and philosophy and religion, divested of 
the love and sentiment of human freedom, would be a dark, seething, overflowing 
colludes of all tlie worst elements of moral and social evil. Ye Gods I what a 
heritage to future generations 1 

82 



TO THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND. 



We are not knaves', we shan't be slaves, 

We'll do as men in other lands ; 
We'll cut in twain the cord and chain 

That bind the slave in Southerlands ! 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! for motherlands ! 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! for brotherlands ! 
We'll cut in twain the cord and chain 

That bind the slave in Southerlands ! 

III. 

Let Shakspeare, Cowper, Burns, and Scott, 

Her Grace the Lady Sutherland, 
And Britain's Queen, be ne'er forgot 

By those who love the motherland. 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! for motherlands ! 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! for brotherlands ! 
We'll cut in twain the cord and chain 

That bind the slave in Southerlands ! 

IV. 

To seal the hooJes for which man looks 

For t7-uth in every other land. 
Cannot be right — 'tis to indict 

The truth itself in Southerland ! 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! for motherlands 1 

For sister and for brotherlands ! 
The slave to free, shall ever be 

Our chief delight in Southerlands ! 



83 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



THE HON. A. A. MURRAY. 

MOST RESPECTFULLY ADDRESSED TO THE HON. A. A. MURRAY TOUCIUNO 

THE PRO-SLAVERY TENDENCY OF HER BOOK OF TRAVELS 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 

I. 

Daurhter of an illustrious line, 
Be it tby privilege to shine, 
In beauty, splendor, wit, at court, 
Whither both wealth and rank resort ; 
Whore wisdom, valor, worth reside, 
With courtesy and blameless pride — 
A galaxy of radiant sheen 
Around a good and gracious queen. 

II. 
But hadst thou lived as long as we 
Amidst the ills of slavery. 
Or known as well as Beecher Stowe 
A tithe of its unfathomed woe, 
Wouldst tliou thy sovereign have offended, 
In that thou hast a cause defended 
Which she most wisely reprobates ? 
Not only as destroying States 
Politically ; nay, but rather 
Because that evil is the father 
Of countless wrongs — subverting morals, 
And evermore entailing quarrels 
Upon our country; and a race 
With which, in harmony and peace. 
Our only source of emulation 
Should be to wprk emancipation 

84 



THE HON. A. A. MURRAY. 



From gyves of body or of mind, 
Alike pernicious to mankind ; 
To spread abroad faith, light, and truth 
From east to west, from north to south, 
Till sea and land, from shore to shore, 
War's clarion echoes hear no more ! 

in. 

Read, learn, digest, and mark these rhymes ; 

Mark well the pressure of the times ; 

Obey thy good and gracious queen — 

Sorely lamenting thou hast been 

The writer of a class of letters 

Which rank thee with the chief abettors 

Of a base system, by whose vices, 

And shameless, heartless artifices, 

It will thy spirit much have grieved 

To find thy judgment so deceived. 

IV. 

How canst thou know the baleful evil 
Which eats the social heart like weevil 
In cereal heaps — destroying life, 
And evermore fomenting strife 
Between the husband and the wife ? 
The moral stain, the soul disease, 
The wrath which nothing can appease, 
That which, more cruel than the grave. 
Affects the just man and the knave, 
Thou trowht not of; nor yet the mental, 
Or natural or accidental. 
Who wont to low propensities 
To yield, and social rites defies, 

85 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Prone like a beast, appearance saves 
By living in a land of slaves. 
Without or fear or care of censure, 
He may and will his all adventure, 
Subordinate the mind to matter, 
Bitter for sweet, sweet put for bitter ; 
By rampant appetites invaded, 
In heart and mind and soul degraded. 
He makes his tvill a tyranCs law, 
The bond and free alike to awe. 

V. 

Taints physical we cannot treat of, 
Descending so from sire to son ; 
No one can adequately weet of 
That which is sown in flesh and bone ! 
Lady, perhaps before thy birth 
'Twas ours to estimate the worth 
Of all this hideous, monste?' lie 
Which some call legal slavery! 
We love thy country and thy name. 
And pay just homage to thy fame ; 
And though it is our lot to be 
Unskilled in ways of chivalry, 
Nay, doubtless far beyond the reach 
Of polished life and Attic speech. 
Yet thou wilt not, mayhap, refuse 
The tribute of our Doric muse ; 
For we are not of such a jury 
As would condemn the courtly Murray 
Unheard : her manner, wit refined, 
Iler judgment, talents, grasp of mind. 
We honor much, and much desire 
To mark, regard, esteem, admire 
86 



THE HON. A. A. MURRAY. 



The noble lineaments of face, 
The mingled dignity and grace 
Which birth and station oft express, 
And habit, moulding every feature 
In perfect harmony with nature, 
To beauty, conversation, mien. 
Meet for the friend of Britain's queen. 

VI. 

Due honor to thy good intention — 
Yet trust we not ourselves to mention 
The ills that may from writings flow 
On which we fain would praise bestow, 
Those passages except, of course, 
Which better reason make the worse. 

VII. 

Far better thou hadst caught the quartan 
Than dimmed the lustre of thy tartan. 
The black, the blue, the red and green* 
So honored by thy lovely queen. 
'Tis said thy bright and glowing pagef 
Does much injustice to thy badge — 
A badge so famed in Scottish story, 
The badge of Sutherland and Murray — 
The Beallaidh chatti J of Argyle, 

Of Sutherland and Strath-na-var, 
The glory of the highland Gael, 

Of " Bonnie Murray," and of Mar.§ 

* Colors of Sutherland and Murray. 

f S. R., having seen and read Miss Murray's book, regrets he has no occasion 
to change those lines. 

X BeuUaidh-chatH — ^Butcher's-broom. Eiiscus aculeatus. See Scottish Gaol. 
§ West of Scotland. 

87 



BURDEN OP THE SOUTH. 



RHYMES. 

Here's freedom to him that wad read, 

Here's freedom to him that wad write ; 
There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heared, 

But they wham the truth would indict. — Burns. 

THE FOLLOWING JEUX d'eSPRIT ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY ADDRESSED 

TO THE 

BISHOPS OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 

OF THE SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST, 
BY THEIR FRIEND, SENNOIA RUBEK. 

I. 

Bishop Polk! Bishop Polk ! there are many good folk 

Who think that thy Southern great college 
Will prove but a hoax among flourishing oaks, 

A poor, stunted crab-tree of knowledge. 
Mission Ridge, Lookout Mountain,- Chattanooga, that fountain 

Of chivalrous boasting and rant, 
Thy fortress and tower, now yield to the power. 

The genius and valor of Grant ! 
'Twas there that thy college, said crab-tree of knowledge. 

And eke some cathedral stood, 
Unorganized schemes, with pro-slavery aims. 

And cankered in root and in bud. 
Time was, if the cause of the slave could by laws 

Be bettered by thee in the South, 
Thou wouldst to thy cost see his manacles loosed 

Much rather than fastened in wrath. 
Such once were thy views. Ah ! why didst thou choose, 

In these days of war and secession. 
Thy Church to desert, and the Gospel pervert, 

To advocate wrong and oppression ? 



RHYMES TO THE BISHOPS OP TEE P. E. CHURCH. 

Why peril thy soul in exchanging the stole 

For the sash, and the crook for the sabre, 
And the type of the dove, that sweet emblem of love, 

For symbols of death to thy neighbor ? 

II. 
Pre-eminent Elliott I thou lord of the Helot ! 

The fardel thou put'st on his back,* 
His freedom to gain by additional strain, 

May cause his poor heart-strings to crack. 
Most noble Athenian ! regard that Cyrenian 

Who helped in the load of the eross ; 
That cause to sustain, man, go sever in twain, man, 

Slave bonds, nor account it a loss. 

in. 

Thou, Miser McDonough ! hast certainly won a 

Great name, as Dey of Algiers, 
Since heads of the Church light their lamps at thy torch. 

To audit slave labor and tears. 
Oh ! slave Theologians, the horse of the Trojans 

Was never more chock full of foes, 
Than meet in the swamp, village, city, and camp. 

Your long cherished plans to oppose. 

* Bishop Elliott is among those who have been endeavoring to carry out the 
scheme of the late John McDonough, the rich miser of Algiers (near New Orleans), 
who suffered his slaves, by extra work, to redeem themselves from bondage, after 
the expiration of a certain number of years, and the payment into his hands 
within that period of an amount equal, we think, to the full market value of the 
slave. Mr. McDonough made no pretensions to pliilanthropy. It was in the 
manner above stated that the Montpelier Institute was proposed to be maintained 
in Georgia, and a mission school in Louisiana, with a plantation to be worked by 
slaves, who should redeem themselves by extra hours of labor before day in the 
morning and after night in the evening. "When thus redeemed, they should be 
transported to Liberia, and the price received for them laid out in purchasing in 
Virginia or Garohna a gang of people who may be nearly double the number of 
those sent away. — See Reproof of the Amer. Ch., p. 53. 

89 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



IV. 

So long, for the keys of the Church, on his knees 

Uas he sought, it is matter of wonder 
That Thomas F. Davis, the friend of the slave, is 

Now anxious its union to sunder. 
Ah me! thy crusaders, the negro traders, 

In church, and in State, Carolina, 
In worship of Cotton, and Rice — sometimes rotten — 

Surpass the celestials of China. 
Eight Rev. Sirs ! apostolic o'erseers ! 

Your slaves, through divine revelation, 
By hook or by crook, 'once instructed, would look 

Yov freedom and civilization / 

V. 

Most excellent Otey ! we gladly would vote ye 

A mitre more fitting thy fame, 
Than fair Tennessee is reported to be 

By those who most honor tliy name. 
But thou, too, good Bishop, art looked to to fish up 

A tribute to Slavery's reign, 
Thy See the abode where the lash and the load 

Must for whites the ascendant retain. 

VI. 

Bishop Green ! Bishop Green ! think how oft thou hast been, 

Among many owners of slaves, 
A witness of crimes that dishonor the times, 

And tlie States that are cursed with such knaves ! 
Remember one Barnet, and Murrill, that Garnet,* 

So red, and so rich, and so rare, 

* Burnet and MurriU. "Who indeed can forget that ever knew those worthies? 
The name Murrill is historical in its way. Tlic other is no loss deserving an im- 

90 



RHYMES TO THE BISHOPS OF THE P. E. CHURCH.. 

Procuring "prime wenches" forjudges on benches, 

To sooth them in sorrow and care. 
Is it true, as we hear, thou hast altered the prayer 

Of the Church for the President, naming 
That traitor instead, who ranks first on your bead, 

While rampant rebellion proclaiming ? 
Whoever absconds from his national bonds, 

Has need of much prayer and fasting ; 
But your constitution will make restitution 

(In case your dominion be lasting) 
For losses : all traitors profess to be haters 

Of meanness and wrong and aggression. 
But ever are wanting in aught but in vaunting 

To remedy fraud and oppression. 

VII. 

Dear politic Glennie ! the love of the penny * 

Must surely have blinded thine eyes, 
Op conjugal tears, and preposterous fears, 

Have made thee more cautious than wise. 
'Twas said that Lord Byron, once urged by thy sire on 

The union and freedom of Greece, 
Determined to work, from the bonds of the Turk, 

That heroic people's release. 
But now 'tis reported that thou hast consorted 

With those who make slaves in the west. 
By means which all freemen, or landsmen or seamen, 

If Christians, are bound to detest. 

mortality of infamy. Of course, the advertisements referred to will be questioned ; 
but the search for their authenticity may bring many worse ones to light. 

* The Rev. Alexander Glennie, rector of All Saints' Parish, "Wackamaw, S. C, 
is said to bo the son of that Dr. G. in whose school at Dulvvich Lord Byron passed 
two years, during which time he was more amiable than at any other period of his 
life. The Rev. A. G. has labored much in imparting religious instruction to ne- 
groes ; and is supposed by some, perhaps erroneously, to bo in favor of the slave 
trade, so strongly recommended by his neighbors and friends. 

91 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



If sons of the soil be the fittest to toil,* 

And show of salvation the might, 
Why, Lord, didst thou choose through a mission of Jews 

To sprinkle the heathen with light ? 
Why, sirs, did your daddies, for Cottons and Paddies,f 

Import from the African shore,- 
Through kidnapping knaves, teeming cargoes of slaves, 

While natives appeared at their door ? 

VIII. 

Bishop Lee ! Bishop Lee ! we are strangers to thee. 

Bishops Atkinson, Rutlege, and Cobb, 
Bishops Whittingham, Mead, Dr. Johns, who 'tis said 

Dissent from the views of James Robb.J 
He doubtlessly raves, who, for owners of slaves, 

Would text books attempt to indite ; 
Prohibition alone would but serve for a bone 

Of contention* — a tax uj)on li^kt ! 

IX. 

Do you represent the apostles first sent ? 

Was theirs a command to enslave ? • 

* If sons of the soil, dec. This seems to be a favorite maxim with Soutliern 
people. One needs only cast his eyes over the list of bishops to be convinced of 
the fact ; and hence it may happen that the proudest State among them may have 
as its spiritual head a man of the lowest order of talents. Indeed, the Know- 
Nothing spirit is nowhere more rife than among Southern Churchmen — in short, 
among Christians of every denomination in the South, who are native born and 
slave owners. 

f Paddy. "Webster says, there is but one species of this grain, but alludes to 
several species of aquatic grasses of the genus zizania, found in Nortli America 
called wild rice. Brandt, under the head Oryza, mentions an immen.so variety in 
its qualities. In its natural state, in the husk, it is called Faddy. If the reader 
does not like the plural in this sense, lot it run as follows. Says Dan : 
Why then did your daddies, or Britons or Paddies. 

J James Rolb. An active, enterprising, experienced, and able man of business 
in New Orleans, still in the prime of mauliood. He is expected to be one of the 
Stuyvesants of the University of the South. 

92 



EHTMES TO THE BISHOPS OF THE P. E. CHURCH. 



Did they, and all others, apostles and brothers, 

Go forth men to min^ not save ? 
George Washington Freeman, thou'rt destined to be, man, 

The first, if not worst, on the lists 
Of foes to the slave, from his birth to his grave, 

Among apostolic high priests !* 

X. 

Doctor Hawts ! Doctor Hawks !f he but jceringly talks 

Of fame, who to freedom denies 
A charter divine, from the innermost shrine 

Of a temple let down from the skies. 
In thy eloquent zeal, thou hast learned to feel 

That duty enjoins thee to save, 
From trials and pains, and from Tyranny's chains, 

The heart-broken African slave. 
Thy loved Carolina than Egypt or China 

Might boast more historic renown. 
If, urged by thy voice, it caused slaves to rejoice, 

And thee, that their freedom was won. 

XI. 

Lament, ye green mountains I ye valleys and fountains ! 
"Whose sons, when resolved upon fight, 

* Among apostolic, <&c. See IX. Dan, again busy with his suggestions, would 
read: 

" Of slave legislation, high priests," 
Alluding to the Bishop's famous pro-slavery sermons, delivered many years ago 
before the Legislature of Xorth Carolina. All these things have consequences. 

f S. R. devoutly believes that there is no real freedom save in the triumphs of 
Christianity. Tliis is the New Jerusalem let down from heaven. There are two 
eminent brothers, to either of whom the above hnes may with propriety be ad- 
dressed. Utrum liorum mavis accipe. S. R., however, seems to have his thoughts 
chiefly upon that Chrysostom of the American Episcopal Church, Dr. P. L. Hawks, 
of New York, among whose writings he believes there is one volume, or more than 
one, upon Oriental Antiquities. 

93 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Towards the north, and tlic east, and the south, and the west, 

Spread Liberty's banner of light. 
Lament, that your Bishop,* with sanative hyssop. 

From just execration would save 
Those villanous cravens, who fatten the ravens 

With blood from the heart of a slave ! 
Perhaps, like our Hintons and Seaburys, bent on 

Defending slave owners and breeders. 
He hopes to find rochet rewards for his crotchet 

In aiding a church of seceders. 

Whose nearest akin has the marks on his skin 

Of the whip of a slave-owning tyrant, f 
Should not, one would think, be expected to wink 

On a process so painfully pliant ; 
Excepting a case when the power of grace 

Might urge to bear stripes as a martyr. 
Which, though not in name, may amount to the same 

Thing, just, as " catching a Tartar." 
'Tis said that our youth did, in fact and in truth. 

Not deny, but confess in his tprrors, 
And cried, "I implore! pray, forgive me ! give o'er — 

I own and repent of my errors." 

* Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont. See his Bible View of Slavery, lately published. 

f Setting rhyme and satire aside, is it true, or is it not true, that a son of Bisliop 
Hopkins, employed in the capacity of a teacher, was, some years ago, not ono 
hundred miles from Bayou Goula, Plaquemines — or Baton Rouge — Louisiana, 
barbarously and unresistingly beaten by a Mississippi planter, for having corrected 
a little girl — his pupil? Is it true, or is it not true, that llr. Hopkins (together 
with his brotlicr-in-law and family) was compelled, as the consequence of these 
untoward events, to abandon both school and churcli in that neighborhood? Hero 
are some of the precious fruits of slavery, which the charitable Bishop seems 
disi)0.scd to overlook. Can wo assign no reason for his upholding such a system 7 
Is the true one assigned in our doggerel rhymes ? In a word, has the Bishop 
now, or has ho never had, or never e.\pected to have, any direct personal interest 
in defending slavery ? 

94 



MEETIMG OF MRS. PARTINGTON AND MRS. GRUNDY. 



ilEETING OF ]MES. PARTINGTON AND MRS. GRUNDY, 

AFTER THE SESSION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE TTNIVERSITY 
OF THE SOUTH, HELD AT BEERSHEBA, GRUNDY COUNTY, TENNESSEE, 
JULY 4th, 1858. 

MRS. PARTINGTON LOQUITUR. 
I. 
Oh ! dear Mrs. Grundy ! how good, how ^'jucundi/,''^ 

Divines add, 'tis thus to shake hands !* 
As these cuts mispresent, by our committees sent, 

In books, about money and lands. 
This mighty big college, we all must acknowledge, 

Is just what we want at the South; 
'Twill keep our boys pure, and their morals insure, 

From justice and mercy and truth. 

MRS. GRUNDY. . • 

II. 
Mrs. Partington, dear ! if it were not from fear 

Of my husband, I'd never agree 
That an acre of mine should, for such a design. 

Be ever surrendered in fee. 
But you know Sol. Grundy ! from Beersheb to Fundy 

Bay highlands, there breathes not a man, 
Nor round to Velasco, nor through to Francisco, 

(Thrice ten times the distance to Dan)* 

* Mrs. P. is evidently struck with an etching in one of the pamphlets of the 
Board of Trustees, representing a pair of hands shaking each other in nubibus, 
under the motto 3:ce quam bonum. Mrs. P. would finisli, or at least extend, the 
quotation in hor own way : Ecce! quam bonum et jucundum. 

* The distance from Dan to Becrsheba in Palestine was 140 miles. Mrs. Grundy, 
a well-educated lady of Tennessee, is therefore tolerably correct in supposing 
our Dan and our Beersheba as removed one from the other by thrice ten times 
that distance — say 4,200 miles. 

95 



BURDEN OP THE SOUTH. 



More wayward or queer, more morose, more severe, 

If aught interfere with his plan, 
Be the plan what it may, touching cotton or hay, 

Schools, negroes, taxes, so forth, 
Political measures, or mineral treasures. 

So freely discussed at the North ; 
Yet I, his poor wife, am the plague of his life, 

If, forsooth, his mad projects I scan. 

III. 
Committed to lawyers, and courts termed " Oyers," 

He says he must now follow suit. 
In titles and lands, which this college demands 

(The vile, the detestable brute !) 
And heads of the college, all men of great knowledge, 

He thinks will sustain him, no doubt, ' 
Nor own that in this he has acted amiss, 

To keep me in darkness throughout ! 
Disguise how we may, ma'am ! the truth must have way, ma'am 

These schools of slave owners and breeders 
Can never work well ; they but sink us to hell, 

And make us a land of seceders, 
Alas ! must Sewanee, in fact and in law be. 

And eke our Beersheba Springs, 
A fountain of wrongs, and a depot for thongs. 

And a hotbed of cockatrice stings ! 
Of morals so pure, which your wit would insure. 

The less that is said 's soonest mended. 
Would to God, my good dame ! that the college you name 

Could thus with our gossip be ended ! 
96 



STANZAS TO 

QUEEN VICTORIA, 

AND OTHER POEMS. 

By SENNOIA EUBEK, Chaplain U. S. A. 



THE DOG AND THE WOLF. 

(a new version, with variations.) 

A Pro-Slavery "Writer from Georgia, of the School of Rabbi Raphael, Mayor 
Wood, &c. — Our Georgian Praised by an Honorary Member of a celebrated Uni- 
versity. — Reference to our Quarterlies and the Hon. Miss A. A. Murray. — Dehglit- 
ful Picture of Slavery. — Bishop Hopkins and Mrs. Kemble. — "Well Fed, well 
Clothed, well Lodged, well Cared For," answered by a new Version of the Dog 
and the Wolf — Barnum and his Museum described. 

The late Incendiary Fires in New York. — Kennedy. — Wax- Works. — Madam 
Tussaud. — Barnum's Loyalty. — Parallels. — Prayer. — Episodes upon Raids, Riots, 
&c. — Wolf described. — Moral. — The Author treats of Contrabands. — Our 
Wounded Soldiers. — Exchanged Union Prisoners. — General John H. Winder. — 
Furtiier Success of our Arms. — Peace. — Our Military Leaders. — Our President, 
Abraham Lincoln. — Hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving. — Assassination. — Assas- 
sins : Booth, Payne, Atzerodt, Surratt, &c. — Conclusion. 



A Georgian sinless toucliinff pork 
Has, in a very learned work, 
Proved Slavery the best condition 
To save the masses from perdition. 
He was of Rabbi Raphael's school, 
Of traitor knaves a venal tool, 
07 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Or of the clique of Mayor Wood, — 
A most religious brotlierliood, — 
Viz. : Long, Yallandigham, and Brooks, 
Cox, Voorhees, Pendleton, and Snooks ; 
Men, all far-famed for puling words, 
More baneful than tlie rebels' swords ; 
And abject beggars for a peace, 
Involving national disgrace. 
Their Sachem was the valiant Rynders,* 
Whose oily tongue and tender grinders 
And pious oaths and decent gibes 
Were aimed at Pharisees and Scribes. 
Now, with a bishop for high-priest. 
Their creed, with Scripture richly spiced, 
Far better suits a Satirist. 

II. 

That freedom is a bitter curse, 

Of every wickedness the source, 

Our Georgian proved with stunning force, 

And not a few his book indorse. 

'Twas praised by N. N. the book-vendor — 

An honorary member he 

Of some great University 

In Europe is ; the reason why. 

If you can fathom, so can't I. 

A man who wrote a book himself — 

Which still unsold adorns his shelf — 

That, too, was lauded by some journals. 

Monthlies, hebdomadals, diurnals ; 

We know not if our Quarterlies 

Their formidable batteries 

* liynders. — See a speech of Captain Rynders at Tammany Hall, reported by 
the newspapers, 8th November, 18G4, and said to be "characteristic of the man." 

98 



THE DOG AND THE WOLF. 



For or against it ever opened, 

And life or instant death betokened — 

All learned critics — who can doubt it, 

That has a moment thought about it ? — 

Indeed, so learned, it is said^ 

They judge of books they've never read, 

As worth their weight in gold or lead. 

'Twas thus thy "Burden of the South," 

So full of life, and light, and truth. 

Was lately judged, Sennoia Rubck, 

Thou pupil of the school of Lubeck.* 

Now — parenthetically parted — 

We to the man from whom we've started 

Retrace our steps, as one to be 

Regarded with due courtesy — 

We mean, pray mark ! that worthy vendor, 

Who would not fawn, or stoop, or bend — or 

Be forced or bribed to write a puflf. 

Or serve a speculating chuff; 

If he, a chuff, who wrote the book, was, 

As he who of the gains partook was. 

III. 

It showed to nicest demonstration, 

By rules of ratiocination — 

Not N. N.'s book — we mean the Georgian, 

Who would at once divide the Gordian 

Knot to prove slaves more bless'd tliau white men ; 

It is not difficult to cite men — ■ 

* " Burden of the South" Luheclc. — Some of the criticisms on tliis little book in 
the Copperhead journals evince in the critics an amount of ignorance and impu- 
dence, or of dishonesty and malignity, incredible to any, save those who have 
seen, read, and judged of the book for themselves. If Luhcch have no distinct 
school of dogmatic theology, it is, at least, as distinguished a seat of the reforma- 
tion doctrines as most of the Hanso towns or German principalities. 

99 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



And women too : the Donna Murray,* 
Who vliilorne wrote in such a luirry 
Her book of travels, in that vein. 
An instance is — who time and again, 
Have written thus, tliough 'tis so plain, 
That those who run may understand it 
Better than those who've closely scanned it. 
In fact, he proved with great complacence, 
It is an act of vile malfeasance, 
And worthy of the rack or gibbet — 
But here we think he needs must fib it ; 
Good reader, as a fib receive it — 
To say a Avord that might unrivct 
A single link in chain so worn — 
A yoke so lightly, sweetly borne. 
By those who are and wish to be 
Provided for abundantly. 
It is delightful so to serve — 
Those who dislike it ought to starve. 
" Well fed, well clothed, well housed, well cared for," 
When healthy, prized, when sick, prepared for 
That last great change that comes to all, 
From negro hut to regal hall 1 
Is tliat the case, asked B., of those 
Who sink beneath the savage blows 
■ Of paddles, cow-hides, saws, and sticks, 
And cuffs, and oaths, and brutal kicks? 
Twelve stripes, a bishop says, is all f 
That they receive. Oh ! wluit a fall- 

* Tlie Hon. Miss Murray — in view of tlio occasional siifibring of the Irish peas- 
antry from ecarcity — has expressed, in pretty nearly the same terms as our Georgia 
Jew Doctor, the supposed inferiority of tiieir condition to that of negro slaves. 

f Wo would not impute to Bisliop Hopkins a willing or wilful perversion of 
truth, Wliat he states on the authority of Mrs. Butler, as to the measure of 
punishment on her husband's plantation, in Georgia, may have been true, as long 

100 



THE DOG AND THE "WOLF. 



Ing off is there, ya gods ! in truth, 
And from a learned prelate's mouth. 
" Exceptions, sir, will always be, 
I'd rather serve in slavery. 
Than as the Dutch be, or the Irish, 
Who often from stai'vation perish." 



There was, said B., a dog hight Blossom, 

No mole more sleek, more fat no 'possum. — 

Fatter, I think, than you or I,* 

Although I say it by-the-by. 

And who will dare assert I lie ? 

You might, if fattened, soaped, and greased, 

At any market where you pleased, 

Exhibit there, as any buyer 

Or negro-seller could desire ; f 

Yea, if I don't mistake your tribe — 

Pray do not think I mean to gibe — 

You'd stand the poking of a rib. 

Or application of a rope. 

Or of your own good stethoscope. — ♦ 

as she — an Englishwoman, hating slavery — remained an inmate of his family 
mansion. We believe, moreover, that most, if not all, of the Butlers of that 
family are particularly kiud to their negroes ; yet wo vehemently suspect that 
Mrs. K. was, in the case referred to, deceived by the overseer. It is the veriest 
twaddle to assert that twelve stripes is the ordinary discipline of the lash among 
Southern people, and this the Bishop ought to know, from the bitter personal ex- 
perience of some of his own household. The Southern planters are far more scrip- 
tural than Bishop Hopkins, in the matter of negro flagellation. " Forty stripes 
save one"— "Thirty-nine (39) lashes 1" is the proverbial threat of infliction for 
the smallest offence. One hundred, two hundred, and sometimes five hundred 
lashes are administered. 

* Our Georgian was a pretty fair specimen of the Parens de grege Epicuri. 

f The most accomplished coiffmrn and vakts are, in the mysteries of an Ethi- 
opian toilet, far behind the most brutal overseers and speculators on the Missis- 
sippi. See the slave-market ui New Orleans. 

101 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Towards dawn of day a wolf he met— 
The dog, the dog, sir ! don't forget — 
A wolf, gaunt, liungry, cold, and wet ; 
No robber who evades the watch, 
Or drunkard from a night's debauch, 
Willi nervous hand upon his latch. 
E'er imaged more a guilty wretch. 
How often in the morning's gray, 
Ere sunrise had made all things gay, 
"When we ourselves were gay and blest, 
Among the prairies of the West, 
Have we, at distance, passing by. 
On some tall hill against the sky, 
Beheld those thieves on watch and ward — 
Like soldiers on a picket guard. 
Or predatory general, 
Determined on a carnival — 
A raid upon some helpless flock, 
B)^ coward shepherds all forsook. 
As was of late poor Maryland, 
When ravaged by a rebel band ! 
How oft on horseback have we faced 
Those prowling vagabonds, and chased 
And killed them ere they reached their thickets, 
In spite of all their guards and pickets 1* 
So should our Union warriors now 
Serve every brigand rebel foe : 
So perish Quantrel's blood-stained hounds, 
V And Mosby, on his murderous rounds, 

* Tlie officers of the U. S. A. often pursue wolves on the Western prairies and 
kill them, sometimes with no other weapons than their stirrup-irous. It is by no 
means difficult to outrun a wolf, even ou a good Indian pony ; but their vigilance 
makes it no easy matter to overtake them, before they reach some ravine or 
thicket, where a successful piirsuit ou horseback becomes impossible. 

102 



THE DOa AND THE WOLF. 



And Morgan, with inglorious wounds. 
Nor are our Union soldiers free 
From this atrocious felony. 
Abstracting from the rights of war — 
Whoever wrongs a prisoner, 
Defiles, or kills, or robs, or steals, 
Or wounds, or wantonly assails 
Defenceless age, or brings distress 
On widows and the fatherless — 
On him descending soon or late. 
Shall judgment without mercy wait I 



V. 



God ! thy purposes disclose, 
To change the spirit of our foes. 
Send from thy ministry of grace 
Some radiant arbiter of peace. 
Or other herald from thy throne, 
Thy righteous judgments to make known, 
Thy hidden counsels to fulfil, 
And work submission to thy will ; 
Or, send some great deliverer forth, 
From East, or West, or South, or North, 
To Sherman, Sheridan, or Grant, 
With Israel's glorious battle chant ! 
" It is the year of jubilee." 
Charge ! in the name of liberty. 
To set the captive exile free ; 
Charge, to the trumpet's thrilling sound — 
Charge, till the welkin rings around — 
Charge, till the hills and rocks rebound — 
Charge in the name of God most high. 
With the loud shouts of victory ! 
103 



BURDEN OP THE SOUTH. 



Thine be the praise, O gracious Lord ! 
The victory thine ! through Gideon's sword ; 
Thine this rebelUon to subdue, 
And all the ills that thence ensue. 
Our sundered stars, O God ! unite, 
That, spreading with reflected light. 
They may increase from shore to shore. 
In wisdom, glor}'^, wealth, and power ; 
Renewed as by a second birth, 
The hope and pride of all the earth, 
While circling spheres, with joy elate. 
Proclaim gloud theu- happy state. 

VI. 

Reader, excuse our long digression 
On rebel raids and State progression ; 
Resume we now our thread of story. 
In fable or in allegory. 
Do come with me, began the dog, 
You'll soon be fat as any hog ; 
Nay, fat as Barnum's lion, seal, 
Nor urged as now to kill and steal. 
Phin. Barnum you of course must know — 
The man who keeps the Broadway Show — 
(Our author — 'tis a thing in vogue — 
Now changes to a Monologue!) 
A singularly pleasant fellow. 
Half Mercury and half Apollo, 
Is Phin. ; those beasts most prone to bellow, 
His voice incontinently follow. 
So by the lyre of Orpheus led, 
The fiercest animals were said 
With rocks and trees to dance and play, 
Like Dryads on a gala-day ! 
104 



THE DOG AND THE WOLF. 



Pliin's crowning virtue seems to be 
A most unswerving loyalty, 
Evinced in loyal words and deeds, 
Amidst a host of Copperheads ; 
While much admiring Little Mac, 
He votes Old Abe shall keep the track ; 
Nor thinks it safe " to change our teaan. 
Right in the middle of the stream," * 
In Barnum this was deemed akia 
To the unpardonable sin — 
The sin against the chivalry, 
The Copperheads, and Slavery. 
It therefore was resolved that he 
Should feel some dire calamity : 
That his Museum, magazines, 
Crypts, tanks, and armories and screens ; 
His long-accumulating hoards. 
Beasts, fishes, statues, reptiles, birds, 
With women, men, and children, numbered, 
Not by the score, but by the hundred — 
Should all, as by a fire from hell, 
With every notable hotel, 
Except the recreant New York, 
Where spies and spiders jointly work, 
Be charred and calcined to the ground ; 
That, sorely smitten all around, 
• Our woes may glut the vengeful eyes 

Of worse than savage enemies ; 

* Great and memorable utterances originate only with groat men. No one but 
Alexander of Macedon could have uttered Alexander's sayings. Whether the 
words hci-e referred to originated or not with Mr. Lincoln, they contain volumes 
of the most profound and practical wisdom, and are alike felicitous in conception 
and application. They have doubtless procured for him thousands upon thousands 
of voters. There are many other sayings of our President v/hich ought to be 
written in letters of gold. 

105 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Who, if they dared, would loudly boast 
Of the infernal holocaust ! 
Ah, me ! what piercing shrieks and cries, 
What fierce, heart-rending agonies, 
What parents' tears, what widows' moans, 
What deep unutterable groans, 
What orphan children's blank despair, 
What frantic, solemn, fervent prayer, 
What weeping, wailing, and affright, 
Should chronicle that dreadful night. 
If thou, Lord ! hadst not ordained 
That rebel fury be restrained, 
And loyal men their voices raise. 
To fill thy courts with songs of praise 
For this thy great deliverance wrought. 
Far, far beyond the reach of thought ! 
Preserve us evermore, O God, 
From all our enemies abroad ; 
And far worse enemies at home. 
Who try to seal their country's doom ! 
Oh, give us grateful hearts to bless 
Thy name, for mercies numberless 1 



From episode to episode. 
We change, according to our mode ; 
And now again produce the dog. 
Resuming thus his dialogue : 
Phin. was a special friend of mine. 
In happy days of " Auld Lang Syne ;" 
I said a friend, in fact a chum — 
We lodged for years in the same room. 
A charming room it is, and sweet. 
Where many grateful odors meet ; 
]06 



THE DOG AND THE WOLF. 



And many strange companions, too, 

Belike Tom Thumb and Brian Boroo.* 

'Tis said a wliale is added now ; 

Fat women, too, are much in vogue. 

And some affect a bloated hog ; 

Indeed, who knows not many a lubber 

Whose soul luxuriates in blubber ! 

All nature's kingdoms do, in short. 

Send delegates to Barnum's court ; 

And are — at least, are said to be — 

A very happy family ! 

I said as fat as Barnum's seal ; 

Nor urged, as now to kill and steal, 

Like human murderers and thieves, 

Who carry dirks and bowie-knives, 

Spades, pitchforks, axes, sticks, and stones, 

Scythes, rusty bayonets, and guns ; 

And camphene lamps and other torches, 

Not to illume, but fire, our porches. 

Asylums, tenements, and churches; 

To extirpate a hapless race. 

Instead of aiding their distress ; 

As they, their foes in worst estates, 

Are kindly aided in our streets. 

In Phin's well-ordered skinnery, 

With saw-dust stuffed, your hide will be — 

Set up, ere long, for folks to see, 

A bead doing duty for an e'e ! 

Ah, me ! — their speculation gone — 

As ghastly things to look upon, 

As pianist automaton, 

(Our author now in force attacks 

Phin. Barnum's statuary wax.) 

* The Irish orthography of this name is, I beheve, Brian Boroimhe. 

107 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



There loycalist and regicide, 
As Mummies in a pyramid, 
Arc ranged together, side by side ! 

Dear honored shade of Madame Tussaud !* 
To whom in wonderment we bow so — 
Say shall wc never see again 
Thy casts of women and of men, 
In likeness perfect and costume. 
Each worthy of a royal dome ; 
Yea, in itself, a Mausoleum,! 
Which, only viewed in Memory's light. 
Thrusts all these scare-crows out of sight, 

To occupy some hypogeum. 
With purblind frowsy birds of night. 

The ill-starred Kennedy, 'tis said J — 
Just numbered with the convict dead — 
Will soon among this grim-faced group, 
In dismal fashion, be set up ; 



* Madame Tussaud called many years ago upon tlie author of this poem, then a 
visitor at Bath, in England, and presented him with a free ticket to her statuary 
exhibition of wax-work. Her own figure, with a paper in hand, stood at the door 
of entrance, and so perfect was the likeness, that many persons addressed it, under 
the impression that it was the living original. 

f It will not, I trust, bo deemed impertinent to inform the non-classical reader 
that the words mausolium and hypogeum, to whicli we may add museum, have 
always the accent on the penultimate, as above marked. 

f A wretched figure, designed for that of Kenuedj', is already at Barnum's. 

It should be added, in justice to Mr. Baraum, that when tlio writer visited the 
Museum, a few days back, ho was agreeal>ly surprised to find that the hideous 
figures referred to in the text had all been removed, and that the paltry caricnture 
of Kennedyalone marred tlie exhibition. The Thumb family are well represented, 
so is the dying Carlist Chief, witli the group of surrounding friends. In the deep 
inspirations and solemn looks and movements of tlioso figures, Mr. Barnum has 
greatly improved upon talking dolls and winking Madonnas. Humbugs all ! 

108 



THE DOG AND THE "WOLF. 



Unless good Barnum feel the twinge 
Of such illustrative revenge ! 
Enough ! perhaps too much of this, 
By way of a periphrasis. 

VIII. 

The dog resumed : Do come, and fear not, 

And in that way I pray you leer not ; 

So snappish, snarling, fiercely shy,''' 

With teeth so sharj) and chaps so dri/, 

And scraggy Jlanks and necJc awry — 

Certes upon thy hip and thigh 

A hat might hang without a tie : 

(The Wolf aside — You slave ! you lie !) 

And looks askance^ and whining cry — 

Pursued the dog ; and livery, 

Gray, hisjjid, bristling, shivery — 

Each hair on end — would certify 

A sense of danger ever nigh ; 

A wholesome fear of the small fry 

Of curs and bullets passing by. 

Thy nose, no vulture of the sky, 

When stooping down to feed and pry 

Upon his quarry, can outvie 

In keenness for putridity. 

Thy tail, in cquipendency 

Between thy hinder leg and thigh 

Stuck fast, shows base poltroonery. 

And eke betokens theft and robbery. 

Thy gait so shambling, mean, and sly ; 

Thine ears as of a traitor s])y 

* For bis rh3'thmic terminations in the description of the "Wolf, the author has 
no better apolog}'- to offer than the hcensc allowed to satire and the sic voh — sic 
zubco — of a freakish muse. Ho will be glad to see a better description in a 
different strain. 

109 



BURDEN OP THE SOUTH. 



Curt, pointed, flexible, and spry ; 

Thy thoughts — which only mount as high 

As sheepcote fence or nasty sty ; 

Thy thirst — a thirst which may defy 

A sea of blood to satisfy ; 

These and that devil in thine eye, 

Make me suspect some treachery. 

Bon mon ami ! barked Monsieur Loup ; 

Quelle marque cette il sur voire coup ? 

The dog, not used to speaking French, 
Though doubtless he could understand it, 
For so our doggerel rhyme hutli planned it, 

In English, like a judge on bench, 
Rejoined, " To make me fierce at night, 

They chain me to a log by day ! 
Adieu, Monsieur ! and quick as light 
The AVolf had vanished out of sight. 

Nor cared what more the dog might say. 

IX. 

THE MORAL. 

Who liberty barters for clothes and good feeding, 
And wears chain and collar the barter to prove, 

May fancy, perhaps, he displays courtly breeding, 
But meanness and baseness v.ill lurk in his brow. 

Contempt, like a chain, will contiue to gall him, 

Nor less that good fortune, in some things, befall him. 



Wliat's said of feeding, clothing, lodging. 
Doubtless displays some artful dodging; 
Yet is a tissue or of lies. 
Mistakes, or musty fallacies. 
110 



FEEDING AND CLOTHING. 



Food makes the body strong for work ; 
Hard workmen will consume fat pork ; 
And pork costs less on one's plantation, 
Than any other trucidation ; 
Not needed more than food is raiment, 
To raise a crop or meet a payment ; 
The coarse, strong clothing of the slave 
Is purchased not to s2ocnd, but save ; 
The comforts of a negro cot 
Are few and far between, God wot ! 
Good men, 'tis true, or on plantations 
Or farms, give ample food and rations ; 
And oft — in families and towns — 
One needs must meet with negro loons, 
With insolence and folly fraught, 
Much better fed and clad than taught; 
But such will always be the case 
In every section of our race ; 
The slaves of many starve and steal, 
To make a comfortable meal. 

XI. 

Ah ! never let it be the lot 
Of those who have our battles fought — 
Those gallant soldiers whom we meet 
In every avenue and street. 
Faint, heavy-laden, sick, and sore. 
With Avounds and bruises covered o'er — 
To be in Avant of daily bread. 
And know not where to lay their head 1 
'Twere shame, indeed, if here, at home, 
They were permitted thus to roam, 
Unaided, friendless, and distress'd. 
Their strength consumed, their souls oppress' d, 
To perish slighted and unblest. 
Ill 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTE. 



'Tis ours to help the lame to walk, 
The blind to see, the dumb to talk, 
The sick to raise, the naked clothe, 
The sad to comfort and to soothe, 
To heal the broken heart, and find 
A balm for eveiy troubled mind ; 
And for the sinning soul to plead 
A Saviour's love — a Saviour's need. 

When golden harvests crown the year, 
To please the eye, the heart to cheer, 
And vine and olive fruits increase, 
Have pity on the fatherless; 
The widowed mother be thy care. 
The stranger and the prisoner ; 
Unbar thy gates, thy gifts bestow 
On every child of want and woe. 

By Ilim, who in the winter wild, 
Became for thee a little child. 
And in a lowly manger laj^, 
Inwrapt in swathing bands of hay, 
"While heavenly hosts, with sweet accord, 
Proclaimed him Universal Lord ; 
*' By all his human griefs and fears," 
His dying agonies and tears. 
The grace, the mercy from above. 
Which ever marked his boundless love, 
The wounded soldier help and save, 
From want and famine, and the grave. 
His every sorrow, every scar. 
Demands thy charity and care. 

And chief those gallant men who come. 
From rebel prisons to our home ; 
112 



OUR RETURNED SOLDIERS. 



Victims of hunger and disease, 
Catarrhs, bronchitis, pleurisies. 
Contusions, ulcers, gangrened wounds, 
And every ill within the rounds 
Of human misery and pain, 
Where rebel wrath and fury reign. 

Come on, poor wasted skeletons ! 
As spectres from a crypt of bones ; 
O'er such as you do Banshees wail. 
And mermaids' cries throughout the gale 
Are heard, in melancholy dirge, 
Above the thundering of the surge ; 
You, by a most remorseless theft. 
Of money, food, and clothes bereft, 
Were kept in nakedness and woe, 
'Mid chilling frosts and rain and snow, 
Or, lay neglected, faint, and sore, 
With filth and vermin covered o'er, 
Or were, by famine, doomed to die, 
In blank despair and agony; ^ 

Your prison fare scarce fit for hogs. 
Your dead less honored than their dogs. 

Who dares a window to approach, 
Or on a special line encroach, 
Of wholesome air to catch a breath, 
Incurs the penalty of death, 
Or into dungeons cold and damp 
Is thrust to perish with the cramp. 
Where dead, or torpid grown like bats, 
He soon becomes the prey of rats. 
Such is the chivalry which greets 
Our captured men in Richmond streets, 
113 



13URDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



Ill Macon, Anderson, Danville, 
Augusta, Salisbury, Belle Islo. 

Winder! Winder ! art thou he,* 
Whom once in our artillery. 
We knew some thirty years ago. 
With whitish hair and beard and brow, 
And kindred lashes of an eye. 
Meet for the inmates of a sty — . 
A scoffer and blasphemer then 
Of all most prized by Christian men — 
A sordid, churlish, selfish wight, 
And greedy as a famished kite ; 
A fierce, impetuous infidel. 
Alike ignoring heaven and hell ? 
We judge thee not, for it is said, 
Thou now art numbered with the dead ; 
Yet from God's holy book we preach 
To all within our range of speech, 
That whatsoever seed they sow, 
They needs must reap for weal or woe. 

Thank leaven, those cruelties were vain 
Our gallant armies to restrain, 
Whose banner now in triumph floats 
O'er bastions, parapets, and moats, 
Torpedoes, rams, and iron-clads, 
And other rebel ambuscades. 
Our cannons roar, our muskets flash 
Where echoed late the planter's lash ; 
And captives free, and slaves released. 
In shining armor manifest, 
Now move like satellites of light, 
To chase the shades of moral night. 
* See Note at the end. 

114 



OUR GENERALS. 



Savannah, Richmond, and Mobile, 
Approve the temper of their steel, 
And Petersburg and Wilmington, 
By deeds of valor nobly v?on. 
Insurgent hosts, or yield subdued, 
Or flying, broken and pursued, 
"With Johnston, Longstreet, Beauregard, 
Find treason's merited reward. 

From Heaven descending, meek-eyed 5cace, 

With Union now in righteousness 

Shall dwell confidingly, and prove 

A bond of everlasting love. 

Our loudest pseans let us sing — 

In thankful, heartfelt offering — 

To Sherman, Sheridan, and Grant, 

Chief heroes of our battle chant ; 

Nor Farragut nor Porter be 

Forgotten in our jubilee ; 

Nor Thomas, Terry, Meade, or Ord, 

Resplendent mirrors of the sword ; # 

Nor Canby, mild, pacific, brave, 

Sagacious, reticent, and grave ; 

Nor Hunt, in friendship, love, and war 

A constant, bright, and guiding star, 

Not more in grade than in degree, 

The chief of our artillery. 

Nor others lower in command. 

Nor rank and file throughout the land, 

Who fought our victories to gain. 

And died the Union to maintain. 

Nor him, our leader great and good, 
The chosen of the multitude, 
115 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



In wisdom first, as first in {)lace, 

" The first in war, the first in peace," 

And who, in view of liis deserts, 

Should rank the " first" in all " our hearts ;" 

Kind, gentle, moderate and brave, 

And nobly generous to save, 

Nor fear of treachery or might, 

Nor favor warps his sense of right ; 

His honest, faithful heart of love, 

Reveals the spirit of a dove — 

He holds alike with love and awe 

The scales of equity and law. 

With more than common foresight blessed, 

In clemency by none surpassed. 

The foe of vice, but meekly given 

To " every virtue under heaven." 



But chiefly to the Lord of hosts — 

• Omnipotent and wise — 

"Who giveth peace in all our coasts, 

Let loud hosannas rise ! 
For He alone is King of kings. 

The worlds are his domain. 
In Him are life's eternal springs, 

By Him all princes reign. 
His works how marvellous and great, 

His ways how just and true. 
Before whose throne all worldly state 

Dissolves like morning dew ! 
The nations shall before Him fall. 

And worship at His feet — 
The high, the mighty, and the small. 

The humble and the great 1 
116 



OUR TROUBLES NOT ENDED. 



Through. Him alone, the Triune God, 

Are victory and power : 
Oh, let us spread His name abroad, 

Who is our shield and tower. 

With Sumter citadel restored, 
Mobile surrendered, and the sword 
Of Grant and Sherman holding Lee 
And Johnston in captivity, 
We fancied that the war-cry's close 
Had put an end to all our woes : 
Alas ! the greatest was to come, 
To wrap our hearts in deepest gloom. 

Lord, let thy Spirit be our guide ! 
While, borne upon the flowing tide 
Of great events, we now unroll 
Things scarcely equalled in the scroll 
Of fame, through all the ages past. 
Since from the wide and barren waste 
Of chaos order rose on earth, 
And saw things goodly in their birth 
Appear ; till finally in man 
The story of our race began. 

What wonder if a monster brood 
Of passions nursed in wrath and blood, 
Like slimy serpents crawl and spread 
Upon our country's heart and head ? 
Behold them now in dire progression, 
Begot of slavery and secession : 
With forked tongue and brazen eyes 
They hiss defiance to the skies, 
117 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



And eartlily powers ordained to be 
The source of human sovereignty. 
Ah, how shall we, who likened Brooks 
To butcher cannibals and cooks, 
Find fitting words as strong, as smooth, 
To paint the character of Booth ? 
The ruffian murderer of our chief. 
And cause of our unwonted jxrief ! 



Not in 2i pallium or a stole. 
With gems inwrought in Tyrian wool ; 
Not as Adonis or Apollo, 
Whom Venus or the Muses follow, 
Young, gallant, brave, and debonair, 
With laurelled brow and shining hair, 
A bow and quiver at his back. 
Or steeped in joys symposiac, 
'Midst troops of blooming nymphs, with faces 
And fio-ures rivallinnj the graces ; 
Nor like Hyperion, from afar 
Resplendent in a golden car ; 
Nor with a godlike gait and eye 
Of all-commanding majesty ; 
But as a dweller in a sty — 
A wolf or dog infuriate — 
A toad, a vulture, or a rat. 
Inspiring fear, disgust, and liate ; 
Or some foul reptile fresh from hell, 
And taught by furies to rebel ; 
Or savage, on the stage of life. 
With bloody tomahawk and knife. 
Would we attempt and love to trace 
The outlines of the form and face — 
118 



LINES ON THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



Nor yet exaggerate or lessen, 

The guilt of tliis unmatched assassin. 

While we our martyr fain would praise 
• In fitting tributary lays — ■ 

We view as sealed beyond debate 
His murderer's satanic fate 1 



LINES 

ON THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 

Thou art gone to thy rest, and the nations in sadness 
And grief stand aghast round thy funeral-car ; 

Thou hast baffled the fiendish malice and madness 
Of treacherous peace-men and rebels in war. 

Thou hast finished thy course — in the records of story, 
No martyr's save One can outshine thy renown ; 

Now gone to the mansions of light and of glory. 

Thy road lay like His, through the cross to the crown. 

III. 

As Amram's great son was by signs and by wonders 

Ordained by Jehovah his people to free 
From bondage,- in Egypt — so likewise He sunders 

The chains of the slave through our armies and thee. 

IV. 

From loftier heights than the Pisgah of Moses, 
Thou viewest that land, to the uttermost shore, 

Which God to thy spirit in vision discloses 

As bought by thy blood for the homeless and poor ! 
119 



BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. 



BOOTH THE ASSASSIN. 



Down, coward ! assassin ! tliou sou of perdition ! 

Dowai, down in tlie lowest abysses to dwell I 
Ay ! tutor in murderous wrath and sedition, 

The foulest aud slimiest serpents of hell ! 



E'en they, with dire hissings, forked tongues, and loud scorning. 
May chance to receive thee as once their proud chief. 

When first from the garden of Eden returning. 

He brought them the news of our forefather's grief.* 

ui. 

On earth or in hell, among spirits of evil, 

There is not — has not been — nor could be, in sooth! 

One more of a miscreant traitor and devil 

Than that which lay hid in the murderer Booth ! 

Nor less in ruthless vengeance nursed 
Was he, that other fiend accursed, 
Who poured the vials of his hate 
Upon our Secretary of State. 
While sick and languishing in bed. 
He scarce could move a hand or head. 

In fury brandishing his knife, 
The murderer, in the unequal strife, 
Inflicted many a ghastly wound 
Upon his victim more than stunned, 

* See Teuth Book of Paradise Lost. ' 

120 



THE OTHER ASSASSINS. 



Not doubting that his fate was sealed, 
And all liis kind attendants killed. 
Killed were they not, indeed, save one- 
(Perhaps) — his brave and noble son ; 
But unprepared, unarmed, ungirt, 
Were maimed, disabled, sorely hurt. 
Ah, me ! if Booth deserved to die 
In torture and in infamy. 
Not less deserving death is Payne, 
His rival of the race of Cain ! 

God grant that justice may be done 
On these assassins, every one ! 
Mudd, Spangler, Azterodt, Surratt, 
O'Loughlin, Harold, now await 
The righteous sentence of the law. 
Which may all future rebels awe. 
Be they of high or low degree, 
Engaged in this conspiracy. 
121 



THE REBEL GENERAL JOHN H. WINDER. 

A WRITER whose maxim it is to say " nothing but what is good 
of tliG deceased " would find liimselt' at his wit's end in analj^zing 
the character of John 11. Winder. There is, indeed, scarcely 
any one so good or so bad as his best friends or worst enemies 
represent him. Epitaphs, panegyrics, and obituary notices of 
all kinds, are proverbial!}' truthless. Some of the most ill-tem- 
pered and ill-natured men in Church or State now living, will 
be, when dead, — as many of the same stamp have always 
been, — spoken of by their friends' and partisans, as models of 
piety, paragons of perfection, — semi-canonized saints ; while 
vastly better men are regarded by their enemies as prodigies of 
iniquity, — all, in short, vessels of election or vessels of wrath. 
Satan himself is not so black as his picture ; neither, perhaps, 
Avas the subject of this notice. It is prol)able that even more 
than ])oetic justice will be. done to him — if not in the sense of 
an apotheosis for his virtues — supposing him to have had any — 
yet certainly in the sense of a high exaltation among " fallen 
spirits " — for his alleged vices. 

It was his fortune during the last few years of his life to be 
placed in circumstances which fully developed the worst features 
of his character. Winder was emphatically a small man, — not 
physically so, but morally, intellectually, socially, a small man, 
and of small repute for good words and works. Were it not 
for the position in which the rebellion has placed him, we should 
scarcely consider him worth the paper or canvas on which his 
portrait is sketched. Thirty years and more have elapsed since 
our acquaintance with Lieutenant AVinder commenced. He 
was then about thirty-live years old, and recently married to a 
widow named Eagles, of Wilmington, North Carolina, with two 
children, nearly midway to their teens. His first wife was a 
Miss Shepard. Let those who knew him as a widower testify, 
if they choose, as to that era of his life. 

A strong-built man, something over medium height, and 
remarkably light complexion — he was well described in the 
New York Herald as a Baltimore-looking Hough. In a lower 

122 



THE EEBBL GENERAL JOHN H. WINDER. 



station than that which he occupied as a commissioned officer 
of our artillery, he would look the personification of a " Dead 
Eabbit" or '• Plug Ugly!" Of his inner and domestic life we 
have little to say. He may, after his marriage, have emulated 
some of the virtues of Lee and Beauregard, in the relations of 
private life. He probably smoked and drank less than either 
of them. We know not in what else he could have rivalled 
them. He was, in religious matters, a scoffer and a sceptic of 
the very worst school ; the most contradictious of men, and the 
most impatient of being himself contradicted. He was, in short, 
a fierce, impetuous infidel. If the weakness of one's judgment 
may be estimated by the strength of his prejudices, then was 
Winder's judgment marvellously defective. Here is an in- 
stance — a person named Burrill was accused of some atrocious 
crime; Winder at once pronounced him guilty, and, when ques- 
tioned as to the grounds of his opinion, could give no better 
reason than the marCs name. " Burrill — Burrill — Ihnow he is 
guilty. There never was an honest man of that nameP 

Like that of all nervous and irritable men, his utterance, wdieu 
excited — and when was he not excited — was uncommonly rapid. 
He certainly had the merit of zeal and earnestness in all his 
opinions and actions. He was, at tlie time to which we refer, 
the oracde of as perverse a knot of village unbelievers as ever 
assembled on the holy Sabbath to discuss the principles of the 
"Age of Reason." Grarrulous and voluble in no ordinary de- 
gree, he was well acquainted with the commonplaces of free- 
thinkers, and much given to disputation, after the fashion of 
their reasoning; but of Christian theology, as taught in the wri- 
tings of eminent divines, he knew little or nothing. His ideals 
of all moral and theological excellence were Paine, Yoltaire, 
Carlisle, and Taylor. Llis religion, in short, was no better than 
that of the wretched incendiary Kennedy. Taylor, who was 
then being prosecuted in London for blasphemy, was his 
special favorite. Taylor's defence of his principles before his 
judge, seemed to Winder the very perfection of truthful and 
talented argumentation. 

With the writer of this sketch Mr. Winder was said to be less 
abrupt, irascible, and intolerant, than with most persons who 
argued with him, but this notwithstanding, no progress could 
be made with him. His heart and understanding were mailed 
with impenetrable prejudice against the truth of Christianity. 
In fact, he not only hated Christianity., but its divine Author, 

123 



THE REBEL GENERAL JOHN H. WINDER. 



and the Christian ministry of all ages and nations. Some sud- 
den and unprovided deaths, among his brother-scoffers, seemed 
for a time to have alarmed him ; but he would soon get over his 
agitation, laugh at his terrors, and become more than ever an 
enemy of the " truth as it is in Jesus.''"' He was zealous in 
making proselytes to his creed, which was a compromise be- 
tween Theism, Atheism, and Universalism. His reliijious views 
may have undergone a change since I knew him. lie used to 
accompany his family to divine service, and was apparently, 
perhaps really, an attentive hearer. 

But if half or even a tithe of what we hear of Winder's treat- 
ment of Union prisoners be true, he must have become more 
and more hardened with advancing years, and liis name will be 
handed down to posterity, with that of the infamous Turner, as 
one of the most conspicuous for tyranny and cruelty in the 
whole history of this wicked rebellion. The nickname " Hog 
Winder " was given to him, we imagine, as much for his obsti- 
nacy and stubborness, or perhaps from the color of his hair, 
brows, and eyelashes, as from any resemblance in his hahits to 
the greediness and voracity of that animal. He was contempt- 
uously spoken of, in Wilmington, as " Shoat Winder." As for 
the justice to be done to his memory by the Honorable Mr. 
Ely, as mentioned by a correspondent of the New Yorh Herald^ 
it is a matter altogether in abeyance, and amounts to little or 
nothing in view of Mr. Ely's chances, after the overthrow of the 
rebellion, of being able to make a generous return for any favors 
extended to him. The same is true of many others in Libby 
Prison, who had been, moreover, before the rebellion, Winder's 
companions in arms. What has been his treatment of the rank 
and file, and of others besides them, in all tlie prisons under his 
charge? Surely the fact of his having been Governor of Vera 
Cruz, or rather the locum tenens of the governor of that place, 
during its occupation by our army, does not add one cubit to 
his official station, or one whit to his moral worth. That honor, 
which was thrust upon him as a matter of convenience, for a 
very short time, by a truly ilhistrious man, neither found him 
nor made him a great soldier or a wise ruler. 

If Winder had kept his religious principles to himself, no 
one would have a right to question them ; but he did not do so. 
He was always obtruding his views upon others, who were con- 
sequently warranted in judging of him and of them by their 
fruits. There are, in the army and out of it, many men like 

124 



THE REBEL GENERAL JOHN H. WINDER. 



him, who wish to get a reputation for large, enlightened, and 
liberal views by aping the conduct of somelearned^infidels, who 
boast of resisting the evidences of revealed truth ; others there 
are, of the lowest order of intellect and morals, whose very 
feeble patronage of religion, or utter indifference to its observ- 
ances, give the impression that, in their view, it is a matter of 
no moment whatever to the well.being of society. 

The writer of these lines trusts he is as free from " the mis- 
representations of ignorance or the leaven of malice" a<yainst 
John H^inder as the correspondent of the Herald who^signs 
himself W. H. Winder ; but he does not think so highly as the 
latter gentleman does, of " the generosity, self-denial, liberality, 
and charity of his relative. It is, indeed, a very high compli- 
ment to place his personal and professional record iii the same 
category with those of Lee and Beauregard. If Lee or Beaure- 
gard be, or ever were, such as he was, they cannot be regarded 
as ' blameless or exemplary ;" nor can either of them, if no better 
than Winder, " claim the admiration of posterity as impersona- 
tions of his family motto, viz "a candid ear and a guiltless (or 
guileless) heart." He was candid in nothing so much as in the 
confession of an infidel faith ; and it is a little too much to say 
that he was without guilt or without guile. • 

125 



• STANZAS 
TO HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA. 



Analysis. — Extent of lier Majesty's Dominions. — Her Majesty's Character, Influ- 
ence, and Power. — The Sepoy Rebellion. — Tlie British Fleet sailing to India. 
— Tlio Stars and Stripes. — Landing and Marching of Troops. — Sir John and 
Sir Henry Lawrence. — Sikhs. — Runjeet-Sing — Assault on Rebel Fortresses. 
— British Officers and Soldiers. — Havelock, Campbell, and others. — Gwalior, 
Lucknow. — Jessie Brown. — Nana Sahib. — Clemency in Victory. — Pagan and 
Moslem Insolcnco chastised. — The Electric Telegrapli. — Irish Recreants. — 
African Slavery. — Prince Albert — His Death and Character. — Queen Eliza- 
beth, Lord Bacon — Parallel. — Slave Piracy. — Poets : Shakspeare, Dryden, 
Pope. — Subjects within the Author's Abilities. — Our own Campaigns. — Gen- 
erals and Naval Commanders. — Grant, Sherman, Farragut, &c. — Conclusion. 

I. 

Illustrious Lady, hail ! of fairest isles, 

Of oceans, main-lands, seas unrivaled Qaecn ! 
While half mankind tliy blandly-favoring smiles 

Regard and bless f thy majesty serene, 
Tliy power and glory o'er this vnst terrene 

The rest admiring view, on farthest shores, 
On road, and creek, and inlet, where I weeii 

Tliy boundless commerce richest treasure pours. 
Behold a suppliant ra;ce thy sovereign aid implores ! 

* The population of the British Empire is at least two hundred millions ; its 
area is, in ]''nglish square miles, four million one hundred and thirty-one thou- 
sand tlireo hundred and thirty-three. Its trade and commerce considered, threo- 
I fourths of the human race, or more, are indebted to it for many of tlio comforts 
I of life, while the remaming part fear or admire its power and inQuenco. 

L 1!! J 



TO QUEEN VICTORIA. 



The priceless gems which glitter on thy brow, 

Arranged with all the witchery of art, 
Less brightly shine than that whose radiant glow 

Reflects the native lustre of thy heart ;— 
To all the nations far and near impart. 

Most gracious princess ! all those charms of life, 
Those kindly promptings which unbidden start 

To sweet accord, the mother, queen, and wife — 
Poor slaves invoke thy help in straits most sad and rife ! 



III. 

Thy treaties and alliances have made 

Fast friends from foes in every foreign land, 
Nor more in war than peaceful counsels weighed, 

Do States thy friendly overtures withstand. 
Thy flag of freedom we would fain expand. 

Oh teach us how ! in triumph o'er the world ; 
Alike in Ethiopia's barren sand 

As in Britannia be its folds unfurled ! 
And from all tongues and tribes fell Slavery's idols hurled. 



The mighty empire of the Russian Czar, 

The lands of Cyrus and of Aurungzebe, 
And eke Confucius, feel thy force in war ; 

Nor frozen zones can clog thine astrolabe, 
Nor cliff"-bound coasts secure a hostile glebe 

From thy invading force : the stalwart sire, 
The loving mother, and the tender babe 

Are victims oft, alas ! of vengeance dire, 
"Which justly 'whelms thy foes in floods of lurid fire. 
127 



TO QUEEN VICTORIA. 



V. 

Send now thy squadrons, slip thy dogs of war,* 

Victorious queen ! nor let thy people fall 
By thousands, foully murdered, whercsoe'er 

The Moslem rebel riots in Bengal. 
Cawnpore !• Merut ! Benares ! Delhi ! all, 

With Agra, Lucknow, and Allahabad, 
And regal Oude, extending to Nepaul, 

The scenes of fiercer butcheries are made. 
Than o'er thine empire yet have cast sepulchral shade. 



From Plymouth steaming, through the Atlantic main. 

Thence by those gates,f Alcides, where thy feet 
Rested from toil, between the coast of Spain 

And Mauritania, toward the land of Crete, 
A gallant squadron from Britannia's fleet 

Descry off Malta and the Rhodian Isle 
Legions of brother warriors, whom they greet 

"With loud acclaim and kind, approving smile — 
Then, bounding o'er the tide, cast anchor in the Nile. 

VII. 

At Alexandria disembarked, Avith speed 
To Cairo and to Suez they advance ; 
And down the gulf and on that sea proceed, 

* S. R. is as well aware as the most fastidious of his critics, that there are 
many among the stanzas addressed to lier Majesty Queen Victoria, and those 
written In Memoriam, not essential to the end and aim of his verses — the abolition 
of Slavery ; but lie cannot lielp thinking tliat, as relating to incidents which have 
taken fast hold of his sympathies, and to persons whose characters ho has ven- 
tured to portray, as interwoven with the tissue of bis story, they arc, how digres- 
sive soever in their nature, quite as allowable in this work as are the episodes of 
other authors in more popular and voluminous writings. 

f The Straits of Gibraltar. 

128 



TO QUEBIT VICTORIA. 



Without a single hazard or mischance, 
Where Pharaoh sank with Egypt's puissance. 

They steer by Mocha, turn the Gate of Tears,* 
With courteous greeting hail the flag of France ; 

Our stars and stripes salute with hearty cheers, 
And rush o'er Indian seas with death to mutineers. 



Cambay receives them — Ind, Allahabad, 

Benares, Lucknow, Agra, Becanere, 
Some east, some northward rush to cannonade 

The rebel crew, from Oude to bright Cashmere ; 
Thus to their sinking countrymen they bear 

Good tidings, while around thy cape, Good Hope, 
Others in all the panoply of war 

So come, that not a rebel dares to grope 
Through jungle, copse,. or pass with such dread foes to cope. 



IX. 

In at the breaches, scale the lofty wall — 

Mount to their chambers, cast them headlong down — 
Haste mortars, rockets, carronades, and all 

The wrath of war to each insurgent town ; 
Treason uproot, incarnadine, and drown 

In its own blood. Of temple, tower, or street 
Let not a stone remain upon a stone ; 

Trample the wretch beneath your horses' feet 
Who children, sisters, wives, with outrage durst entreat. 



* Tho Straits of Babel Mandel. The reader, with a chart of the Eastern Hem- 
isphere before him, can easily trace this supposed route of the British troops on 
their way to India. It was strongly recommended, I believe, by some able writers 
in the columns of the " Loudon Times." 

9 129 



TO QUEEX VICTORIA. 



Flung be tlieir idols to the moles and bats — 

Their castes destroyed, their traitor priests disgraced, 
Their bodies left to vultures and to rats ; 

Their crypts, their shrines, their oracles uncased — 
Their temples all made desolate and waste — 

Abodes where only venomed reptiles dwell, 
Foul birds seek refuge, and a den the beast — 

A type of ruin, misery, and hell, 
Like that which Milton sang, where rebel angels dwell 



Dlustrious brothers ! warrior statesmen ! who 

Have graved the name of Lawrence on our heart,* 
Haste with your Sikhs and Britons brave and true 

To Delhi, Lucknow. Sovereign aid impart 
The villain Nana's treacherous wiles to thwart 

Since Alexander and his captains sought 
The peaceful sway of Porus f to subvert, 

None have, like you, such works of wisdom wrought. 
Or to the Punjaub States such wholesome statutes taught. 



Go raise the scattered hosts of Runjeet-Sing 

From Kishengunga southward to Chacur ; 
Let loyal Scinde with marching warriors ring — 

Their cry of war, " The Ladies of Cawnpoor !" 

* Sir John and Sir Henry Lawrence. 

f It is true that Alexander, struck with the valor of Porus, added extensive terri- 
tories to his former dominions : " mox donavitampliore. regno quam anted tenuit," says 
Quintua Ciirtius. It was nevertheless Alexander's intention, when ho invaded 
the Punjaub, to make Porus as well as other monaichs his vassals. Hence it was 
that when Porus was ordered to surrender and meet Alexander on his frontier, 
he replied that he would certainly do the latter, but armed to resist him. " Ul 
iniranti regiium suum presto esset sed armatus." 

130 



TO QUEEN VICTORIA. 



Hail ! Inglis, Tucker, Palmer, Toombs, and Orr ; 

Thou gallant Edwards, Cotton, Vincent Eyre ! 
Brave Lugard, Penny, Lumsden, Hodson, Kerr ! 

Venables, Gubbins, Daly, Bartle Frere ! 
Expunge the murderous horde with heaven-avenging war ! 



Transcendent Havelock ! generous Outram ! On, 

Brave Campbell, Neill, and Nicholson, and Reid, 
And Wilson, thou Britannia's favored son ! 

Victorious Greathead, Salkeld ! Home ! whose meed 
Thy Sovereign's cross — for many a daring deed 

Of arms — good Burgess and Carmichael share, 
And Smith, and names unmentioned, though they bleed ; 

On — on ! Still on ! Ye valiant legions hear — 
God save ! God save the Queen ! Britannia's conquering cheer. 

XIV. 

Borne on the breeze to Lucknow's barriered tower, 

Hark the loud pibroch of the valiant Gael ! 
And in the far horizon see the stoure 

Of hurrying hosts yon traitors to assail. 
Ah, you with sickness, grief, and famine pale — 

Black, wounded, shriveled, gaunt, despairing, dying ! 
Cease now your dire condition to bewail. 

Of strength what yet remains put forth in crying — 
They come ! the Campbells come ! the rebel foe is flying ! 



Hail, noble chieftain ! in the hour of need, 

With wrath and vengeance to a blood-stained town, 

To save alive from horrors that exceed 

Our reach of thought or language to make known. 

Thy fellow-subjects. There poor Jessie Brown, 

131 



TO QUEEN VICTORIA. 



With hope instinct, or faith's prophetic car, 
First heard her native highlands' favorite tune — 

So Brunswick heard the sounds distinct and clear 
Of Waterloo, and sought a royal warrior's bier.* 

XVI, 

" Dinna ye hear ?" the question then as now 

Was asked. Ye gods ! how oft the boding heart 
Of woman's love and woman's plighted vow 

Of more than prophecy enacts the part ! 
Ay, while she sleeps her spirits wakening start — 

For her beloved's welfare shows her fear — 
She sighs, she watches, prays, and would revert 

To all her cares in every willing ear, 
And in her lonely grief shed many a scalding tear. 

XVII. 

Gwalior, Lucknow, Jhansi, and Calpee 

Of Rose and Grant the valiant deeds attest. 
Tliy fort Procurce f a Napier's gallantry 

Has shelled and taken. Which to rank the best 
Of Britain's heroes — greatest when most pressed 

By numbers numberless of rebel foes, 
Of every chance and vantage-ground possessed — 

'Twere hard to tell, where every leader mows 
A myrmidon ian crop to feed the carrion crows. 



Down with the caitiifs ! down with towers and mosques — 
Down with the crescent banners which unite 

* The story of Jessie Brown is so like a well-known passage in " Childo Ilarolil " 
(relating to the Duke of Brunswick), that one may well fancy it had its origin there. 
" I sleep, but my heart waketb," is a beautiful expression in the Song of Solo- 
mon. Woman alone knows its full import. 

f Procurce. The name is taken from newspapers. 

132 



TO QUEEN yiCTORIA. 



The ruffian crew — down palaces, kiosks, 

And be tlie Cross your standard in the fight — 

Leave not a stone to chronicle their might. 
Bring mortar, howitzer, bring shot and shell, 

Brave bombardiers I with engines well empight ; 
Ingulph their bastions in a fire of hell ! * 

Nor let one miscreant live the dreadful tale to tell. 



But chief on devilish Nana Sahib's head. 

His guards, his parks, his palace in Bithoor, 
Heap direst vengeance — strew his streets with dead, 

Cast forth his corse from minaret or tower. 
For famished dogs or vultures to devour ; 

Or let him wail in torture that sad hour 
When British wives and virgin daughters slain 

By blood-hound butchers in his day of power, 
Lay piled in death — their age and virtues vain 

His rabble Moslem hordes from outrage to restrain. 



XX. 

Yet spare, oh spare ! the helpless and the young. 

Or men, or women, maidens, mothers, wives ; 
Nor stain the lawful vengeance of the strong 

With blood of captive guiltless fugitives. 
But when the hour of recompense arrives, 

Let not the sabre slumber in its sheath ; 
Make demon cut-throats answer with their lives — 

March on, victorious, to the feast of death. 
Till rebel traitors sink their crumbling walls beneath. 

* Feu cfen/er. 
133 



TO QUEEN VICTOEIA. 



XXI. 

Till from thy cape, Comorin, to Lahore, 

From Burrampootra west to Kurachee, 
Yea, from Herat across to Singapore, 

Their shahs and sahibs bend the suppliant knee ; 
Nay, farther Paynims must instructed be, 

By land and sea the China coast along. 
How vain is all their boasted chivalry. 

If Britain's sons from Hainan or Hong-Kong 
To Canton bend their way, or Pekin, through Shantong. 



In lawful vengeance and resistless force 

Rise now, or never, British warriors, rise ! 
Speed, great Leviathan, thy gallant course 

That treacherous horde of pagans to chastise ; 
Of faith in treaties and your great emprise 

Teach them respect. Alas ! though yours the gain 
In every port of all their merchandise. 

With Pekin's self and its imperial train, 
'T would scarce Britannia's loss redeem for heroes slain.* 



With speed of thought from Ceylon to Pashawr, 

Yea, through the main, from Smyrna to Japan, 
Our throbbing nerves of commerce and of war 

Shall mountains, seas, and trackless deserts span ; 
As now from France to Constantino or Bon, 

So doubtless soon upon the lightning's wing 
Will Britain treat with Delhi and Moultan, 

And, banded with the house of Runjeet-Sing, 
To Modem tyrants death, to slaves deliverance bring. 

* Allusion is hero made to the losses lately sustained at Peiho. 
134 



TO QUEEN VICTORIA. 



XXIV. 

Shame on those Irish recreants who now,* 

With neighbors, friends, relations in Bengal, 
Are sunk in moral turpitude so low 

(Can human bosoms nurture so much gall ?) 
That they will dare as patriots miscall 

The traitor Sepoys ! Dastards who would fain 
Those murders, rapes, and incests which appal 

The hardest hearts excuse, can never wean 
Leal Irishmen from God, their land, their glorious Queen. 



XXV. 



But yet not more to meet these dire alarms, 

Most mighty princess, we thine aid implore, 
Than that, amidst the clang of hostile arms, 

Thou wouldst her sons to Africa restore ; 
Yea, and confirm them there foreverraore 

In freedom. Ah, if now resolved to plead 
Their cause, as once, in childhood, heretofore,! 

* A demonstration, by a few Irishmen, of sympathy with the rebel Sepoys, after 
their outrage upon the wives and daughters of British subjects, and some lauda- 
tory speeches on the patriotism of tlie monster, Nana Sahib, have been reported 
in the New.Yorlc papers. 

f An EngUsh gentleman related, many years ago, to the writer of these stanzas, 
an anecdote which, if true, does equal credit to the head and heart of Queen Vic- 
toria. While reading, when a child, a passage in Cowper's "Works, describing 
the horrors of Slavery, she exclaimed, with tears in her eyes, that, if she ever 
came to the throne, it should be her first care and chief concern that no slave 
should be found in her dominions. 

Has a certam Coryphnts of the pro-slavery press, who lavishes such praise on 
the gentle bard of Olney, ever read his poems ? or does he, as many do besides 
him, curse Slavery in his heart while he prostitutes his pen to defend it ? Or is it 
that he has only read some new and expurgated edition of Cowper, for the use of 
the Southern States, with the edifying imprimatur of the Charleston, Knoxvillo, 
and Savannah Conventions ? 

Fleecy locks and black complexion 
Cannot forfeit nature's claim: 

135 



TO QUEEN VICTORIA. 



Thou wouklst the van of intorcession lead, 
No human power could long their freedom's march impede. 

XXVI. 

Shall commerce, science, trade, discoveries, all 

The telegraphic glories of thy reign. 
And States and peoples multiplied, recall 

The bloodiest records of a slave campaign ? 
Shall boastful sons of liberty enchain 

The souls and bodies of a hapless race, 
Nor every nerve be strengthened to restrain 

The monstrous crimes and follies which erase 
God's image from the heart, and men to brutes debase ? 



As when reflected in a placid lake 

We gaze undazzled on the mid-day sun. 
So at this distance, loveliest Queen, we take 

More softened views of thee upon thy throne, 
Nor value less the glory thou hast won. 

Thy gift of tongues, thy dignity and grace : 
The murderous rebel Islamite cast down. 

Corruption, faction banished from thy face ! 
Be freedom now thy meed to Afric's sable race. 

* * * * 

Skins may differ, but affection 

Dwells in white and black the same. 
Is there, as ye sometimes toll us, 

Is there One who reigns on high ? 
Has Ho bid you buy and sell us, 

Speaking from llis throne, the sky ? 
But slaves that once conceive tlio glowing thought 
Of freedom^ in that thought itself possess 
All that the contest calls for : spirit, strength, 
The scorn of danger and united hearts — 
The surest presage of the good they seek. — Cowper^s Task. 
136 



TO QUEEN YICTORIA. 



XXVIII. 

Thou, sovereign Lady, seated on thy throne 

Or in the stilly solitude of night, 
Hast often felt, like humble Jessie Brown, 
1 A weary heart, a saddening spirit's blight ; 
Nor strange thou shouldst, when he thy heart's delight, 

In the full prime of intellect and years. 
By Heaven's decree, and in thy soul's affright, 

Left thee to strive, in sorrow and in tears. 
With all a widow's griefs — a mighty empire's cares ! 



His gallant bearing and his royal name, 

His knowledge, wisdom, genius, worth combined ; 
His noble courtesy, his rank and fame, 

Won every heart to generous deeds inclined. 
How brave, how true, how good, how loving, kind, 

As father, husband, friend, and guide, was he ! 
Yet, gracious Lady ! must thou be resigned. 

And, through thy faith, in this bereavement see 
A Heavenly Father's hand, though wrapt in mystery 



Not thine alone this loss : an empire mourns 

The father, husband, prince, and people's friend. 
Busts, temples, statues, monumental urns 

Throughout the land his deathless acts commend. 
Science, and Art, and Learning all contend 

With Agriculture in that mighty dome 
Reared by his voice, and sympathizing send 

To thee those angel heralds from the tomb — 
The prayers of Christian hearts — to dissipate thy gloom. 
137 



TO QUEEX VICTORIA. 



XXXI. 

Not great Eliza should with thee compare, 

Nor Bacon's courtly tributes equal mine,* 
Mine which, alas ! are lost on desert air — 

My lute a reed, my wreath a withered vine. 
Ay, more than praise, my prayers for thee and thine 

Would pierce the clouds, such power to faith is given ! 
And in accord with myriad spirits join. 

If Africa, her chains of slavery riven, 
Thy heritage, great Queen, were recognized of Heaven. 



XXXII. 

Then should the pirates of the Spanish main, 

Cuba, Brazil, and our Atlantic coast, 
From Madawaska to Sebastian, 

Of human cargoes cease to make their boast. 
The paddle, mallet, chisel, Avhipping-post, 

The clanking fetters of a negro-chain, 
The savage horrors of a holocaust,f 

With us, as in thine empire, ne'er again 
The eyes and ears should shock of angels or of men ! 



* For the beauty and graces of her person, what colors are fine enough for 
such a description but the chastest and royalest ? 

Of her gait — Et vera incessu patuit dea. 

Of licr voice — Neo vox hoininem sonat. 

Of her eyes — Et Ia;tos oculis adlavit honores. 

Of her color — Indumquo sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro si qnis cbur. 

Of her neck — Et rosea cervice refulsit. 

Of her breast — Vestc sinus collccta fiucntcs. 

Of her hair — Ambrosia-quo comai divinum vertioe odorom spiravcre. 

S. R. would have, in the great Lord Chancellor, a rival not easily surpassed or 
equaled in classical and courtly complimcnls. 

f The number of negroes burnt at the stake, or otherwise put to death by 
Lynch law, in tho Southern States, is incredible. 

138 



TO QUEEN YICTORIA. 



XXXIII. 

Immortal Bard of Avon ! could thy song, 

Or, sweetest Spenser, thine, our soul inspire, 
Or Dryden's spirit sweep our chords along, 

Or Pope's melodious numbers tune our lyre, 
All, all and more to thee should we desire 

To consecrate, whom now, Britannia's Queen, 
A mightier host of tongues and tribes admire. 

Honor, obey, revere, and love, I ween, 
Than monarch ever yet has ruled, or known, or seen. 

XXXIV. 

But better suits our rusticated muse 

To sing of forests, rocks, and boundless plains, 
And savage men and beasts and scenic views, 

And wars o'er nature's wild and rude domains, 
Or of our own most perilous campaigns, 

Or of our naval exploits on the wave 
(Such themes may yet evoke our dormant strains), 
Than queens and lords and courts where beauty reigns 

With regal state. Our task be now to grave 
On every feeling heart the ransom of the slave. 



We have, alas ! our Bobadils and Pims, 

Who more affect the pommel than the rein — 
Men of caprices, littlenesses, whims, 

Eude, brutal, fierce, implacable and vain, 
Their idol, rank ; authority their bane. 

In sword and sash and plumes and colors gaj^ 
Dice, harlots, drink, and oaths and boasts profane .. 

Their valor lies — all stubble, wood, and hay. 
When courage, strength, and skill must end a doubtful day. 
139 



TO QUEEN VICTORIA. 



XXXVI. 

And, Heaven be thanked ! we want not men of worth, 

Frank, gallant, loyal, generous, and sincere. 
Whose noble deeds, like Sidney's, grace their birth ; 

"Whose genius fits them or for peace or war, 
For land or sea — who scorn the vulgar ear 

By acts which truth and conscience must condemn; 
Who dare the faith of treaties to revere — 

Alike prepared, or with the sword or pen. 
Their countiy's cause to serve as Christian gentlemen. 



Hail, Sherman, Thomas, Farragut, and Grant ! 

In conquest speeding ever more and more, 
While with rebellion grappling to replant 

Our Union flag in beauty, as before. 
On every mast, and citadel, and tower. 

Brave Porter, Sheridan, Kilpatrick, hail ! 
In triumph moving on from shore to shore, 

Till not a foe is found in hill or dale. 
In inlet, strait, or gulf, your forces to assail ! 



XXXVIII. 

Nor more to warriors than to those is due 

Who have, as able statesmen, loved to trace — 
With wrath and obloquy to thwart their view — 

The dawn of freedom to a hapless race. 
Hail, Seward, Sumner, Greeley, Smith, and Chase ! ■ 

Hail all who have, with influence benign. 
So helped the curse of Slavery to efface, 

That it can never lift its head again — 
Uail thou, above the rest, good Lincoln, chief of men ! 
140 



TO QUEEN" VICTORIA. 



XXXIX. 

As now tlie sun upon tliese humble rhymes 

In orient splendor sheds the light of day, 
So grant, Almighty Father, in our times 

Thy light divine to shine on Africa. 
From Algiers streaming, south to Algoa Bay, 

From Guard-a-fui westward to Cape Verde, 
Send all around and through its glorious ray. 

In every spot, ah may its truth be heard 
From apostolic men deservedly revered 1 
141 



STANZAS 



ADDRESSED TO 

HIS BIPERIAL LIAJESTY ALEXAN^DER THE SECOND, 

EMPEROR OF RUSSIA. 

By his Majesty^s sincere Admirer, Sennoia Rubek, Cilizen of Gie United 
States of America. 



Analysis. — Extent of the Russian Empire. — Emancipation of Serfs. — His Impe- 
rial Majesty's great Reforms. — His friendly Feelings towards the United 
States. — The Russian Squadron lately in our Harbor. — Lisovski. — His Impe- 
rial Majesty's disaffected Subjects not encouraged by Sympathy in this Coun- 
try. — Demagogues among ourselves. — Innisfail. — Russian and American 
Flags embracing. 

I. 

Imperial Cesar ! wielding sovereign sway 

From "Warsaw's ramparts to the Ural chain, 
And from the Tauriclc Chcrson far away 

Wlicrc Megcroe meets the Arctic main — 
Thou whom half Europe's tribes and tongues are fain 

To own, with Asia paramount in power ; 
From Euxine waters to SagaUen — 

From AzofF to the banks of the Amoor, 
Or where Kamtschatka's waves rush thundering to the shore. 

n. 

Thy serfs made free, thy nobles' pride restrained, 
Thyself a model chieftain, statesman, prince, 
142 



TO ALEXANDER II. OF RUSSIA. 



Thy people's liomage and affection gained, 

Truth, wisdom, piety, intelligence, 
Spreading afar their hallowed influence, 

All mark an era in the march of time 
And progress, which must all men needs convince 

That human bondage, soon, in every clime 
Must yield before a train of forces so sublime ! 

III. 

Proceed and prosper, mighty prince ! till all 

Thy vast dominions feel the glowing light 
Of truth and freedom, till the shadows fall 

From lids now shrouded with the veil of night ; 
Till all without be glorious in thy sight. 

And all within be peace, a heavenly ray 
From Him, the Truth, the Wisdom, pure and bright. 

The Sun of Righteousness, the Life, the "Way — 
Who keeps for thee a crown not subject to decay. 

IV. 

Elustrious friend of these our sovereign States 

Now rent asunder by a rebel foe. 
Thy generous heart, in our disastrous straits, 

Would fain its warmest sympathies bestow — 
Nor dost thou suffer traitorous tongues to sow ■ 

Distrust and jealousy throughout thy land 
Of those who by their every action show 

How well they prize, how clearly understand, 
In all thy vast reforms a sovereign master-hand. 



V. 

Thy noble envoy visiting oitr coast, 

The brave Lisovski, with his gallant fleet, 
143 



TO ALEXANDER II. OF RUSSIA. 



And other loyal chiefs, it is our boast 

In every town and citadel and street, 
"With loud acclaim to honor and to greet — 

Contending all, in generous courtesy. 
Thy praise in glowing language to repeat, 

As Prince of Peace, great Chieftain of the Free, 
Best Friend of all Mankind, the Scourge of SUivcry ! 

VI. , 

E'en thou, great prince, despite thy righteous sway. 

Among thy subjects oft art doomed to hear 
Of discontent and clamor, which bewray 

In rebel hearts a pestilential fear 
Of sober rule and discipline sev^cre. 

But, ah ! how meet, to check the march of crimes. 
In such as labor through their mad career 

Regardless of the pressure of the times. 
To worship some false god, the idol of their dreams. 

VII. 

Who leave their country for their country's good — 

A horde of traitors, patriots misnamed — 
And raise the cry of vengeance and of blood 

In this our land for freedom justly fixmed, 
Are not by us encouraged or inflamed 

Against their former rulers, or empowered 
To raise seditious factions, but disclaimed — 

Nay, by our loyal citizens abhorred 
As men deserving death, coercive by the sword ! 

vnL 

'Tis true, wc have our demagogues, who play 
A double game with ignorance and vice — 
144 



TO ALEXANDER II. OP RUSSIA. 



Cajole with flattering tongue, and then betray 
Their victims, purchased at too cheap a price — 

Men fit for murders, arsons, mutinies, 

From foreign States, but chief that gem of Isles, 

Poor Innisfail ! Ah me ! their boasting lies 
Against Britannia cause but scornful smiles, 

Or only on themselves draw down unnumbered ills. 

IX. 

Tliy ships of war now anchored in our ports 

We hail as angel messengers of peace. 
From all our masts and battlements and forts 

Thy flag and ours, in rivalry of grace, 
As though, instinct with life, they would embrace, 

Ascend, expand, and float and sink to rest, 
Like sportive eagles in the realms of space. 

Ah 1 may our States, great prince. North, South, and East 
and West, 
In friendship, joy, and peace be thus supremely blest ! 
10 145 



STANZAS 

ADDRESSED TO 

niS IMPERIAL MAJESTY NAPOLEON THE THIRD, 

ON SLAVERY, FREEDOM, AND ITALIAN NATIONALITY. 

By Sennoia Ruber, 
A Citizen of the United States of Korth America. 



Analysis. — France as it was and as it is. — The Emperor's Genius and great 
Name.— His Scheme of Negro Labor in the French Colonies. — "War with Aus- 
tria. — Italian Nationality.— Garibaldi.— The Quadrilateral Cities taken.— Sol- 
ferino, Pala;stro, Magenta.— March of Freedom through Italy.— Naples, Ven- 
ice, Palermo.- The Mincio.— Virgil.— Carthage.— Prayer for Negro Emanci- 
pation. — Conclucion. 



And thou whose France, once bounded by the Rhine, 

The Alps, the ocean, Pyrenean heights, 
Is still in arts, in arms, and discipline 

Among the first of European States ; 
From Provence stretching north to Dover's Straits, 

From Strasburg westward to the port of Brest, 
With Algiers now made subject, which creates 

Itself a wide dominion, and the best 
To chccli the trade in slaves, degrading east and west. 



II. 

uy wisdom, genius, wealth, and power and fame, 
And favoring fortune ever standing near — 
146 



TO NAPOLEON THE THIRD. 



And, more than all, thy great, immortal name — 
Will seem to sanction every buccaneer 

Who of that fatal policy may hear, 
Of thy colonial system, to enslave, . 

In guise of names deluding to the ear, 
The hapless negro rushing to his grave. 

His neck from cruel yokes now impotent to save. 



Say, has thy wisdom failed, for once, to scan 

In this apprenticeship the nameless woes 
To weaker tribes resulting from a plan 

Which to the strong their weakness must expose ? 
Ah ! is it then unknown to thee that man. 

When once invested thus with sovereign power, 
Will o'er his fellows, struofii'linQ: now in vain 

Against oppression, in some fatal hour 
Their necks to bondage fit as slaves forevermore ? 



Not meanly thus we think of thee, O France. 

For freedom ever struof^lino;, thouo;h withstood. 
Thy love of freedom, wisdom, common sense. 

Will prompt thy pity for the low and. rude, 
By whom its blessings in their plenitude 

Can never be sufficiently esteemed 
But by experience of the boundless good 

Enjoyed by those from slavery redeemed. 
And as the sons of God by freedom's rights proclaimed ! 

V. 

Shall all the blood at Malegnano shed, 
On Montebello or Palo3stro's plain — 
147 



TO NAPOLEON THE THIRD, 



Magenta, thine ! incarnate with the dead, 

And Solfcrino's yet unnumbered slain, 
For Italy and freedom be in vain ? 

Shall Venice, Lonibardy, and Parma yield ? 
Modena, Milan, Tuscany again 

Renounce their hopes from many a well-fought field, 
And Villa-Franca's peace the Austrian despot shield ? 

VI. 

Shall Garibaldi and his conquering band. 

The Papal States, Sardinia's gallant king, 
And Valtellina's sturdy sons demand 

In vain the charters which from freedom spring ? 
Shall peace enforced no franchise titles bring ? 

Yea, now to ransomed Italy restored, 
Their hills and valleys with its echoes ring. 

Piedmont, France, Sardinia, sheathe the sword. 
And Venice with free States unites in free accord. 

VII. 

Verona, Mantua, Lcgnago, still 

"With Peschiera, thy proud banners wave, 
Imperial house of Ilapsburg ! but thy will 

To rule as tyrants rule would be to rave. 
Ungrateful sons of Italy ! who gave 

Your nationality a heart ? whose might 
And slcill and valor could your country save. 

Your hopes revive, your freedom's battles fight ? 
Who but Napoleon win your every civic right ? 

VIII. 

Pizzcghione and Brcscello yours, 

And Rocca d'Anfo and Farrara's mounds, 

Placenza's moats, Ancona's barriered towers, 

And yours the faith well based on hallowed grounds, 
148 



TO NAPOLEON THE THIRD. 



Hearths, altars, sires, wives, children, native bounds. 
Shame then be yours, if now, with favoring cliauce, 

A vanquished foe your pohcy confounds — 
If, though unaided by the power of France, 

You cease to prosper, speed, triumphantly advance ! 

IX. 

March, Freedom, onward through the land of song. 

Of wisdom, genius, eloquence, and arms. 
Those hills and vales and classic scenes among, 

Whose echoes wate, whose fame the spirit warms — 
March from the Rhaetian Alps, o'er Sabine forms. 

From Genoa's gulf to Jura's lofty height. 
Thence where Venetia sits in all her charms, 

A queen of beauty still, as once of might — 
Yea, next to sovereign Rome in glorious memories dight. 

X. 

On to Palermo ! on, ye gallant few 

With hearts devoted to your country's cause. 
Rise, vassals ! rise, your tyrants to subdue — 

The world your triumph greets with loud applause — 
Messina yields, Neapolis withdraws 

From conflicts vain ; the shrine of Virgil's tomb 
Echoes the cry — for liberty and laws — 

Of Garibaldi, with his legions come 
As guardian spirits sent to save decUning Rome. 



Thence o'er Romagna march in guiltless pride, 
Illustrious chief ! Hark ! Pisa, Florence call, 

Modena, Milan, Parma, open wide 

Thtjir gates to keep thy glorious festival 
149 



TO NAPOLEON THE THIRD. 



Of civic rights in many a regal hall. 

In right divine those rulers who confide, 

And those who would their subjects dare enthrall, 
Or trust in aught save justice, truth, and fear 

Of all misrule, foresee a day of reckoning near. 

XII. 

The Mincio hails thee from its reedy banks, 

Where youthful Maro tuned his rural lay, 
Ticino, Po, Trebia, where the ranks 

Of Rome's great warriors met in fierce array 
The hosts of Carthage, on that dreadful day 

When slaughtered myriads on the ensanguined plain 
Of Canna3 slept, or Thrasymene's bay ; — 

Still Rome was free, the living, like the slain. 
Preferring death in arms to slavery''s cursed chain. 



XIIL 

Would that our rulers now in heart and hand, 

With France and thee and England's gracious Queen, 
May stay the curse that desecrates our land, 

The trade in soulx, the direst curse I ween, 
The sin of sins, the essence of things mean — 

The crime of crimes which men most monstrous call. 
Most cruel, sensual, devilish, and unclean — 

Of all misdeeds the deadliest since the fall — 
The body, spirit, soul, pith, power, and sum of all ! 
160 



STANZAS 
IN MEMORIAM. 



Intra bis denos te ostendit et abstulit annos 

Parca foros ; votis insidiata meis, 

Nee potuit probitas, nee amaeni gratia vultua 

Flectere, non setas nee pia turba 

Deam. Sannazarius. 



As o'er the stilly bosom of a lake 

When flitting clouds obscure the noontide ray, 
Successive shades and sunny lightnings take 

Their rapid course, so pass our lives away — 
Alternate joy and grief so tinge our day, 

So ever-varying change and chance appear, 
Happy if while as pilgrims here we stay 

To soothe our pain some faithful friend be near, 
Or parents fond remain to comfort and to cheer. 

11. 

We had a child. Her dulcet name was thine, 
Victoria ! She was lovely to behold, 

Mild, gentle, patient, spotless — in her eyne 
Shone pity pure as e'er by mortal mould 

Eeflected was from Heaven. Alas ! I'm old, 
Sad, weary, waste, and desolate. My tears 

Fast flow for her, in death so stark and cold, 
151 



IN MEMORIAM. 



My joy in grief, sweet solace in my cares — 
Yet cherish I the wish which most endears 

Iler memory to my heart, 
That I to ransom slaves devote my future years. 

ui. 

Ah ! she to them was ever good and kind, 

Though born wlicre bondage daily feels the lash ;* 
Not slow to hear, or politicly blind 

To aught that was or truculent or rash : 
Voices and thongs and hands upraised to gash, 

And imprecations angry, loud, and wild. 
And eyes enkindled with demoniac flash, 

And lips with oaths and blasj)hemies defiled, 
Were soothed oft and calmed by that most holy child. 



Peace to her spirit ! sent to us awhile 

To point the pure and perfect way to heaven, 
While in her shroud a sweet seraphic smile 

Illumed her face : in life to her was given 
To see before her into darkness driven 

Wrath, envy, malice, guile, as from a sight 
Too pure for aught debased, with doleful steven — 

So birds of evil omen shun the light. 
And fly confused, and seek the thickest shades of night. 

V. 

She tad a mother, brother, sisters twain. 

Whose darling names were ever on her tongue, 

And friends beloved, tender and humane, 
To whom with yearning memory she clung ; 

♦ South Carolina. 
152 



IN MEMOEIAM. 



But more than all that phantasy which swung 

Her mother's image in her vision's light, 
When raging fever countless shadows flung 

Athwart her soul to dazzle or benight, 
Was to remembrance dear, and ever in her sight. 

VI. 

Yes, thou, sweet child, hast felt a mother's love, 

A father's sympathy, a sister's care, 
To soothe thy pangs of agony, and move 

Thy soul for happier regions to prepare ; 
They 'dew thy pillow Avith affection's tear — 

Around thy couch with measured footsteps glide, 
Or, hushed in silence, bow the listening car. 

To learn thy wants, their bitter grief to hide — 
But thou to heaven hast fled, their darling and their pride. 

VII. 

Ay, spotless spirit, thou hast winged thy flight 

From pain and sorrow to that blessed abode 
" Where seraphs gather ever new delight 

On life's fair tree fast by the throne of God ! " 
From every people, nation, tribe, and blood, 

With white-robed virgins there new anthems raise — 
Anthems by virgins only understood — * 

Compose the noblest coronals of praise ; 
Not e'en archangel choirs chant forth more hallowed lays. 

vni. 

God bless my father and my mother dear. 
Friends, brother, sisters, relatives and foes — 

Foes had she none, but in her childhood's prayer 
Was, that she might have, taught to presuppose — 

* Rev. xiv. 3, 4. 
153 



IN" MEMORIAM. 



Thy grace, O Lord, tby guardian grace to those, 

To all extend : she cried, Thy suppliant keep 
From coming evils, which may interpose 

To scathe my spirit, waking or asleep — 
0, Saviour ! guide thy child through waves, dark, drear, and 
deep. 

IX. 

Chiefly she prayed for what the Lord has taught — 

Blessing and praise and worship as in heaven, 
Divine deliverance by obedience wrought. 

Daily support, the hope to be forgiven. 
As we to others freely shall have striven 

Pardon to grant, through Ilim who died for all ; 
Such faith and hope and love, devoid of leaven, 

No pains subdue, no changes could befall, 
Nor fear of death or hell or judgment could appal. 

X. 

Say, dearest father, where the willows grow ? 

She sighed, as one who felt she soon must die — 
The pure alone by faitli are taught to know 

The solemn seal of immortality. 
The willow shall our elegy supply. 

My child ! its branches shall thy grave o'erspread ; 
The cedar, cypress, and the yew shall vie 

In branching honors o'er thy precious head. 
And their united dews depict the tears we shed. 



Ilast thou been musing of " poor Barbara's " fate,* 
The willow, streamlet, sycamore, and stones, 

Which, more relenting than her faithless mate, 
Record her tears and murmur to her moans 1 

* Sco Othello, Act IV., Scene 3. 
154 



IN MBMORIAM. 



Or of Ophelia, as with sweetest tones * 

She made of willows pendent o'er the brook, 

A more enduring monument than thrones, 

When, dight with garland trophies, she mistook 

Her foothold, and a life of weariness forsook ? 



Ay, dearest love, thy father in his rhyme 

The mighty Queen of Britain will implore 
To check anew that most atrocious crime 

That ever festered at a nation's core — 
The crime of Slaver^/ — cursed as heretofore, 

As now and always, in each Christian heart. 
On every mainland, sea, and island shore. 

Invoke we all the nations to impart 
Their help, this trade in souls forever to subvert. 

xiir. 

Thou hadst a friend, and she was like to thee. 

And yet unlike — a mother and a wife. 
In love and faith and angel purity, 

In grace and comeliness, in death and life, 
In form and spirit perfect, past belief, 

Perhaps example — save of one — ay, weep ! 
Sire, children, husband, friends, in bitter grief 

For her sad loss. When saints their vigils keep, 
She, too, will plead for slaves with supplication deep. 



Supremely pure and sinless thus within. 
All radiance, lustre, gloriousness without. 

Soft, tender, tranquil, cheerfully scrane, 
A rainbow glory circling her about, 

* Hamlet, Act IV., Scene 7. 
155 



IN MEMORIAM. 



The dying child saw Yemil ; * hark, that shout ! 

A host of angels more than fancy hears 
Their sister-spirit greeting, who can doubt, 

To those blest mansions where nor anxious fears 
Nor sorrows dwell, nor death nor sighs nor bitter tears ? 



And if who reach that ever-blest abode. 

Where death and care and pain no entrance find, 
Can, with their thoughts of happiness and God, 

Remember those in suffering left behind. 
Through her and thee, my child, so pure and kind, 

Both ministering angels, may these verses prove, 
That Milly and her Oderick be joined 

In freedom now, as they were once in love, 
And this fresh source of joy enhance the joys above. 

* Yemil. This name is an anagram, and refers to one of the daughters of an 
old and honored officer of high rank in the army. She was the late wife of the 
distinguished Cliief of Artillery in the Army of the Potomac. She was one of 
the lovehcst of human beings — in mind and person all that is most beautiful in 
woman. Ilude, profane, and boisterous men of the West, calling officially upon 
her husband, were awed into reverential silence by her presence. They seemed 
to feel that the ground upon wliicli they trod was holy ground, and the whole at- 
mosphere pervaded by spirits of angelic purity. 

156 



ADDITIONAL STANZAS 
IN MEMORIAM. 



Insatiate arclier ! could not one suffice ? 

Thy shafts flew thrice, and thrice my peace wag slain.* 

Young. 

Thou turnest man to destruction : again thou sayest, Come again, ye children of 
men. — Fsalm xo. 3. 



Thou, too, art gone, my noble, generous boy ! 

The howling tempest chants thy funeral dirge : 
The crashing trees, the shores, the hills reply 

In echoinij murmurs to the mountain surcje 
Which shrouds thy corse. Aerial powers ! why urge 

Against that fragile craft such fearful might ? 
Ah, why pursue unto the utmost verge 

Of wrath three youths so promising and bright — 
Their parents' fondest hope and ever dear delight ? 



With Cincinnatus added to thy name 
To mark the lovely city of thy birth, 

* It will be remembered by many living in New Orleans at the time, that three 
young men, whose boat was capsized in a gale, were drowned in Lake Pontchar- 
train, 23d of May, 1858. 

157 



IN MEMORIAM. 



Wc hoped, as parents ever hope, thy fame. 
With less "admixture of the mould of earth, 

Would scarcely fail to emulate the worth 

Of that great man ; — nay, more, that thou wouldst be 

With all the Roman virtue that shone forth 
In him so brightly — with that freedom free. 

Which wanting, sovereign Rome was sunk in slavery. 

III. 

O, Edmund ! Edmund ! thy afflicted sire 

Has looked to thy continuance of a name 
Which might awake the echoes of his lyre, 

To sing a gifted kinsman's hallowed fame, 
And thus his own deficiencies disclaim 

Or hide ; but thou, my son, art gone before 
That ought'st remain, if we may without blame 

So say, who now thy hapless lot deplore. 
With tempest-broken heai-ts, like galleys cast ashore. 

IV. 

Enough ! be hushed these rebel thoughts of heart ! 

All is ordained by Heaven's supreme decree — 
Controlling evil, and in whole or part 

Educing good from human misery. 
Lost is my son ! 0, Henderson, with thee. 

His other self, as faithful, kind, and true — 
Both model friends, in filial piety 

By none surpassed, and equaled but by few. 
As brother twins in life, in death united too. 

V. 

Thy horse, thy dog, thy jocund laugh, thy store 
Of manly spoils returning from the plain, 
158 



IN MEMORIAM. 



Tlie woods, tlie lakes, the river's sounding shore, 
Shall nevei' cheer thy parents' hearts again. 

In rural sports and rural peace we fain 

Would have thee pass thy residue of days, 

But commerce, cities, and the tempting train 
Of their enjoyments, in the whirling maze 

Of Ufe's exciting scenes, had lured thy youthful ways. 

VI. 

An expert swimmer, and with brawny arms 

"Well used to steer, and with a rapid aim ; 
To trim thy sails, to row, and in alarm 

Quick to discern the point whence peril came — 
Yet now were vain thy guiding skill and fame — 

Waves mountain high, thy skiff so slight and frail 
Was swamped, upset, and lost — thy manly frame. 

We know not how encumbered, in the gale. 
Two furlongs from the main, could nothing now avail ! 

VII. 

Tills watch, too sad memorial of thy doom ! 

Records the moment when the vital breath 
Forsook thy heart to wing its progress home 

From scenes of sorrow, bitterness, and death. 
To lands where love and hope and joy and faith 

Dwell evermore for those who, struggling here 
With sinful natures, seek a glorious wreath 

From Him whose more than saving grace is near 
To help their unbelief and hear their humble praj'cr. 

VIII. 

These, too, the garbs which wrapped thy manly limbs, 
And this thy gun^ companion of the chase. 
159 



IN MEMORIAM. 



Thy hair ! ah, what more dear to memory ! dims 
Our eyes with tears, our hearts with wild amaze. 

Gone, gone, my son ! How marvelous thy ways. 
Almighty God ! Ay, gone, forever gone. 

In all thy vigor, in thy prime of days. 

With him thy friend, thy brother, Henderson. 

On us still sufteriiig here, look. Lord, with pity, down. 

IX. 

Farewell, brave youth ! thy mother's tender joy, 

Thy sister's comfort and thy father's care. 
No slaves of thine shall wearied hours employ, 

No captive exile sigh in ceaseless prayer 
For freedom's boon ; if one still cry to spare 

His feet from gyves, our muse shall set him free. 
Once thine, he never as a prisoner 

Of hope licnceforward shall regarded be. 
But as the mountain air have chartered liberty. 



The holy wish shall consecrate thy grave, 

Tliat with thy sister, buried side by side, 
Thy body, loved one, rescued from the wave, 

May till the judgment peacefully abide ; 
Beyond that mighty flood whose healing tide 

In crystal waters rolls toward the sea. 
The sea of life, behold the cross ! thy guide, 

Thy flag, thy pennon, ever more to be 
A Saviour's pledge of love, life, light, eternity I 

xr. 

The soul that's wedded to immortal verse, 
On sacred themes by inspiration given, 

Indites but that which angels might rehearse 
In choral strains before the throne of Heaven ; 
160 



IN MEMORIAM. 



Yea, and unmixed with perishable leaven, 

Such verse than brass or gold or Parian stone 

Is more enduring. Into chaos driven, 

When sea and land and stars and sun and moon 

Dissolve, it shall have reached it highest, brightest noon, 

XII. 

Come ye who breathe an atmosphere of sighs 

And tears and wrongs and pains and trials sore, 
Behold, through faith, those mansions in the skies 

Where joy and peace abide forevermore. 
Such joy our child and Yemil, at death's door, 

Hava seen, and John and Milton sang aloud, 
While rainbow glories o'er the emerald floor 

Of heaven's bright arch poured forth their crystal flood, 
And angels tuned their harps, and saints of every tribe and blood. 

XIII. 

And ye, our daughters twain, still left behind 

To soothe the anguish of your parents' hearts. 
With gallant husbands fearlessly inclined 

In freedom's cause to act distinguished parts, 
Ah, sufier not the subtleties and arts 

Of freedom's foes to make your children be 
Subjected to an influence which imparts 

To infant minds the soul's worst leprosy — 
The foul, infernal taint of human slavery. 

XIV. 

Nor let these rhymes, which now, in his old age, 

Your sire bequeaths an offering to his race, 
How much soever they excite J;he rage 

Of some, by you be reckoned a disgrace. 
Nay, rather far delight in them to trace 
11 161 



IN MEMORIAM. 



A gift transcending titles, land, and gold, 
And priceless brilliants wliich tlic person grace, 

Or aught which may be lost or bought or sold. 
Or subject to decay by moth or rust or mould ! 
1G2 



STANZAS 



ADDRESSED TO 



HIS KOTAL HIGHNESS THE PEINCE OF WALES. 



*■* 

Why may we not, sweet Prince, thy coming greet 

With civic honors worthy such a guest, 
And eke to glad thy royal parents meet 

As by our great and sovereign States expressed 
For England's youthful heir ? Let East and West, 

Celt, Teuton, Norman, Pict, with unbought grace. 
Like native free Americans attest 

Thy worth, Victoria's son, of Brunswick's kingly race. 

11, 

Why should we rather honor Japanese 

Than thee, the future monarch of a state 
To which we trace our glorious genesis, 

-Our sum of all that is or good or great ? 
Thy sacred annals, Albion, consecrate 

Our freedom, courage, industry, and power ; 
Thy Christian truths our souls emancipate 

From thrall, and prove our panoply and tower — 
A rock of safe defence, forever to endure. 

III. 

Yet go untrammelled in thy blooming prime, 
Men's customs, habits, manners to survey, 
163 



TO THE PRINCE OF WALES. 



Illustrioi;s youth ! from every realm and clime 
With wholesome laws thy people's heart to sway. 

So Solon and Pythagoras, away 

From home restraints, and so Lycurgus sought — 

So the great czar and Alfred won their way 
To empire, each a royal patriot — 

And so mayst thou, loved prince, to know mankind be taught. 

IV. 

First of thy house to visit thus our lond,* 

Son of Victoria, of auspicious name. 
The glory hers and thine to seal the bond 

Which binds our nations in one common fame. 
Thy sages, England, and thy bards we claim. 

Thy wealth, thy glory, and thy wide domain, 
Thy statesmen, heroes, conquests are our theme — 

Thy language, trade, and commerce all pertain 
To us, who know, like thee, and dare our rights maintain. 



And thine, as ours, this land by freemen won. 

Our arts and sciences ; no more estranged, 
Thine the great spirit of our Washington — 

Ilis whilom foes to peaceful rivals changed. 
Now side by side as kindred nations ranged. 

Behold we Europe's states in threatening force 
On despots rising, leagued to be avenged. 

While we pursue the tenor of our course. 
And, free ourselves, would fain their every right indorse. 

VI. 

If thou, returning to thy home again, 

Beloved prince, all nations couldst induce 

* Land. Always thus written ia tho Spenserian stanza. 
164 



TO THE PRINCE OF WALES. 



To sunder that most execrable chain 

That galls poor Afric in her bondage-house — 

Ah ! if thou couldst arrest this foul abuse, 
The horrid trade in human flesh and blood, 

Scarce more degrading to the slave than us, 
As Christian freemen, worshippers of God, 

No prince than thou e'er wrought for man more lasting good. 
165 



LINES ADDRESSED TO THE UNION COMMISSION, 



FAITHFUL FRIEND AND SERVANT, SENXOIA RUBEK. 



L 



There is an echo in tlie heart, 

A chord, which never touched in vain. 
Evokes our yearnings to impart 

A sovereign hahn for every pain. 

It. 

To seek the halt, the maimed, the hlind, 
The hungiy and the houseless poor, 

And for the weary wanderer find 
A safe retreat, an open door, 

III. 

Proceed, most loyal men and brave, 
And triumph in a righteous cause 

The sad to cheer, and those to save 
Who spurn divine and human laws. 



Survey, as though already yours, 
The shining garlands which await 

On those who consecrate tlieir powers 
To help the faint and desolate. 
1G6 



.J 



TO THE UNION COMillSSION. 



Not prone to scan with craven fear 
The malice of the godless few 

Who would with ribald jest and sneer 
The labors of your love undo. 



VI. 



Help every coming refugee, 
Or Union friend or (late) a foe, 

Who needs your generous sympathy, 
An exiled, houseless child of woe. 



VII. 



Thus heaping on the guilty head 

Bright flames of fire to light the soul, 

To wake from sleep the living dead, 
And win the atheist and the fool ! 



Behold the sprmg is nigh at hand — 
Oh give, that they no longer roam, 

To each a freehold spot of land, 
A lowly cottage for a home. 

IX. 

Nor for those gifts on them bestowed, 
Nor all the good in duty done, 

Claim any recompense of God, 

As though the merit were thine own. 

X. 

Tlaou only, Lord, canst fill the soul 

With Christian faith and hope and love ; 

Oh send, our plans to overrule, 
Tby Holy Spirit from above. 
1G7 



JAMES McH., 

AN AGENT AND OVERSEER ON THE PLANTATION OF MR. DOUGLAS. 



Few men like McII n, can rig out and batten 

A slave for the parlor or stews, 
Or polisli or grease or conceal a disease, 

A scab or a scar or a braise ; 
A coiffeur the best, as we all can attest 

Who know him, of slaves sold at auctions, 
While those who keep station upon his plantation 

Are Know Nothings touching decoctions. 

II. 

His system of drill, penitentiary skill 

And discipline nothing abating, 
Cold porridge and tripe, cruel use of the whip. 

All prove him both hateful and hating. 
If trial by jury result from his fury 

In pistolling, lashing, and tearing, 
He counts on his bribes, through his tools and his scribes, 

To save him by dint of hard swearing. 

III. 

With such a pickeer for thy slaves' overseer, 

Whose god he declares his right hand is,* ^ 

* Dexlra mihi deus et ielum quod missili lihro 
Nunc adsinti 

was the boastful prayer of Mczcutius, called by Virgil a dcspiser of tho gods {con- 

108 



JAMES McH. 



We envy thee not, Little Giant, a jot, 
Nor Lim who thy squire to command is. 

tcmpto7- divum). One might imagine the great poet was describing a Southern slave- 
overseer, with his idols, the paddle and cowhide. Similar in most respects to those 
of the blasphemers referred to were the personal character and theological tenets of 
that great Egyptian overseer, Pharaoh. "When entreated, in the name of the Lord, 
to let the Israelites go, he replied : "I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel 
go. "Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their work ? Get 
ye unto your burdens 1 " 

The charge brought against the two Hebrew Abolitionists by this atheistical 
despot, was precisely that which is now urged by our petty Southern despots 
against Christian Abolitionists. And Pharaoh said : " Behold the people are 
many, and ye make them rest from their burdens." The slaves of Kentucky and 
Virginia, we are told, might have been emancipated years ago if if had not been 
for the agitation by Northern fanatics of the slavery question. This it is, it was ' 
added, which makes Southern slave-masters increase, hke Pharaoh, the burdens 
and sorrows of their slaves, and renders their manumission more hopeless than 
ever. 

Possibly, too, our Southern bondmen may blame, in some instances, their very 
best friends, as the Israelites did Moses and Aaron, saying: " The Lord look upon 
you and judge, because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the sight of 
Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hands to slay 
ug." Moses and Aaron went on, nevertheless, agitating, till the Lord delivered 
them out of the house of bondage with a mighty hand and with an outstretched 
arm. 

" In one of the Ten Commandments," says Mr. Bledsoe, " this right of property 
is recognized." He is speaking of the right of property in human beings — slaves. 
He then cites the Tenth Commandment, " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor 
his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's." Married ladies in gen- 
eral must feel imder great obligations to Mr. Bledsoe, for placing them in the same 
chattel category with his ox and his ass. 

Mr. Hammond, like Mr. Bledsoe, makes use of this very argument in support 
of the peculiar institution, but, with moral and theological olfactories of keener 
sensibility, smells a rat in its application. "We commend it as a text for Governor 
Alston in his preaching upon African slave piracy. It is admirably adapted as a 
motto for kidnappers setting out to the gold, ivory, and grain coasts with the 
gospel of the Charleston Convention. 

Mr. Bledsoe, in proving too much, proves nothing. His dogmatic and moral 
theology are quite as defective as his logic. W"e regret being compelled to ex- 
press an opinion so unfavorable of one who presumes to sit in judgment iipon 
Locke, Paley, and "Wayland. It did not suit Mr. Bledsoe's purpose to cite the in- 
troduction to all the commandments: " The same which God spake in the twentieth 
chapter of Exodus, saying, I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the 

169 



SENATOR CRITTENDEN. 



SENATOR CRITTENDEN * 

And Crittenden, thou, with juridical brow, 

A diamond, though rough, of rare value, • 

A Marshall in light and a Stoiy in might, 

Forensic or legal, say shall you 
Your slavery views still defend and diffuse. 

With Know Nothings check immigration. 
And side with one Prentice, whose double-nosed scent is 

Self, pelf — not the good of the nation ? 



SIMMS, HAMMOND, AND OTHERS. 

SiMMS,f Hammond, and Harper, and Bledsoe, poor carper ! 

And Lewis, and Freeman, and Dew, 
And other such writers and plausible citers 

Of scriptural texts not a few. 



land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." That this will be at no very re- 
mote period as applicable to the poor black slave in the Delta of tlio Mississippi 
as to the Hebrew bondman in tlie Delta of the Nile, we are no more permitted to 
doubt of, than we are permitted to doubt of any other truth in the Bible. 

* This able and venerable senator has few greater admirers than the author of 
these rhymes, who may, however, be permitted to regard him as a remarkable 
and lamentable instance of the deceiving spirit of party. 

f W. G. Simms, Esquire, of South Carolina, makes a most vigorous attack upon 
the writings of Miss Martineau and others, in reference to the subject of negro 
slavery, as it now exists in the United States. The gallant man, a native South- 
ron, perhaps, or a Northern man with Southern principles, which means, gener- 
ally speaking, either superabounding flunkyism or the ownership of negro chat- 
tels, blinking all principle, is quite facetious upon Miss Martineau's deafness, and 
the charm of chatting through a trumpet with a lady of a certain age. Ho seems 
to consider Miss Martineau's deafness so great an infirmity as to place accuracy 
of information on the merits or demerits of Slavery entirely beyond her capacity. 
There are, however, many less pretentious persons than Mr. Sirams who believe 
that some defect in one or more than one of our senses, occasions in all the others, 
unimpaired, an increased quickness of perception. Miss Martineau, her deafness 

170 



SIMMS, HAMMOND, AND OTHERS. 



Your own sad experience and facts much at variance 

With all your repeated averments, 
Prove plainly enough that the conscience, when tough. 

Or elastic or plastic, fantastic or drastic. 
Loves place and still hopes for preferments. 

notwithstanding, could see as well as others the resemblance between a white 
father and his mulatto child. Mr. Simms and Miss Martineau are both Avell known 
in the literary world, but were we called upon to pass judgment upon their re- 
spective merits as writers or judges of human nature, wc could scarcely better 
convey our meaning (age and infirmity notwithstanding) than in a very homely 
proverb, which we leave for application to the reader. So much for Mr. Simms 
and his chivalrous assault upon the ladies, Miss Martineau and Mrs. Stowe, and 
another whom he wantonly and cruelly drags into this controversy. The chiv- 
alry should confine themselves to assaults upon men ; but here again we see that 
" the wrath of man worketh not tho righteousness of God," and we have con- 
stantly before our eyes the vision of an Abel smitten prostrated and bleeding in a 
righteous cause, at the foot of the higli altar of his God and his country, from 
the blows of his brother — the chivalrous Cain ! 

Another of the chivalrj'-, Mr. Hammond, now a senator in Congress, in a letter 
to Mr. Clarkson, comes out with a great flourish of trumpets against the late Lord 
Macaulay for having asserted, in a speech on the sugar duties, in the House of 
Commons, that slave-owners in the United States, while boasting of their civiliza- 
tion and freedom, and frequenting Christian churches, breed up slaves, nay, beget 
children for slaves, and sell them at so much a head. This and other statements 
respecting the Slave States, Mr. Hammond calls vile and atrocious falsehoods. 
The statement here chiefly referred to, might be left as a question of veracity be- 
tween both those gentlemen, if ve were not all qualified to pass judgment on its 
merits. Can Mr. Ilammond, from his seat in the United States Senate, lay his 
hand upon his heart and re-state before that august bod\', that he, a Southern man 
and a slave-o\vner, believes that siaiement tohe a falsehood ? If so, he must be one 
of the greatest simpletons that ever sat in a deliberative assembly I And what 
must be the alternative if ho knows the statement to be true, as every man of com- 
mon sense and observation must know, who studies the human physiognomy on 
a slave plantation, or frequents the slave market ? Why, simply this, tliat Mr. 
Hammond, with his hand still upon his heart, and giving the first prononn in the 
sentence an adierhial murk (sic I), can best reply in the words of liis own quota- 
tion against Macaulay, 

" Hie Niger est, hunc tui Romane, caveto ! " 

Harper, in his Memoir of Slavery, admits more than enough of its evils to con- 
sign it to the eternal reprobation of every honest man. lie then proceeds to an- 
swer objections in a style of special pleading quite worthy of such a cause, and 
of such a cause only. Another chancellor, and, with reverenco be it said, of a 
much higher order of intellect than Chancellor Harper (Lord Brougham), has given 

171 



SENATOR IVERSON. 



What touches our natures in marred iieg-ro features, 
Would go to convince us more clearly 

Of stripes and of blows and of horrors and woes, 
For sustenance purchased too dearly, 

Than thousands of reams in your style of extremes, 
And of logic urged too cavalierly. 



SENATOR lYERSOK 

In this gentlemaa's speech on the 9th of January, 1800, is the following passage. 
"We quote from the " Century," 14th January: — 

" Let these loud-mouthed, blood-and-thundcr braggadocio Abohtion leaders as- 
semble their arms and forces, and come down to Georgia to force us back, if they 
dare. 'We will not liang them, as they talk of doing to us. We will not dignify 
them by such a decent exit from the world. We will not show to them that re- 
spect Avhich was accorded to their faithful representative, John Brown. But, by 
the Eternal I we will hang them up like dogs to the trees of the forest growing 
ready to our hands. In such a war, the South will stand firm, and exclaim, as did 
the ancient knight — 

' Come one, come all ! this rock shall fly 
From its firm base as soon as I.' " .. 

The following impromptu by a friend, on reading the above extract, is, we think, 
not unworthy of a place in this work : — 

IMPROMPTU. 

Not abolition sons of thunder, 

Nor Gascon fools nor heads of d under, 



his view, which has also been published, on the same question. We need only 
say to the reader — " Look at this picture and look at that." Chancellor Harper 
docs not propose to defend the African slave-trade. Why not, good chancellor, 
seeing you regard slavery as a moral and humane institution, productive of tho 
greatest political and social advantages ? " Doubtless," he continues, " groat evils 
arise from tlie slave-trade ; unnecessary wars and cruel l<iduappings in Africa ; tho 
most shocking barbarities in the middle passage ; and, perhaps, a less humane sys- 
tem of slavery in countries continually supplied with fresh laborers at a cheap 
rate. Does not Mr. Harper know tliat it is the home demand that creates the 
foreign trade ? You cannot have one without tho other. While the learned 
chancellor is inconsistent with himself, both ho and Mr, Hammond and Professor 
Dew are tilting against that portion of the chivalry headed by tlio Alstons, the 
Pryors, and tho Kcitts. 

172 



TUE EVENING DAY-BOOK. 



But deathless fame's loud-echoing train 
That matchless statesman greet again, 
With whom compared Gibraltar rock 
Is crazy as' a shuttlecock ! 
Thou Georgium Sidus of the Senate, 
And minim of the wisdom in it — 
Thou generalissimo of Lynchers, 
And prince among the weasand pinchers 
Of men and dogs on forest trees 
High swinging in a Southern breeze, 
Or in the balmy zephyrs swaying. 
Whilst, as the harp of Orpheus, playing 
The wildest, sweetest, saddest tones 
Among their pulseless skeletons. 
^Eolian dirges ! soon to be 
The requiem of Slavery, 

We hail thee, sir, with solemn vow, 
Such as our consciences allow ; 
Ay, gentle sir, not by the Eternal, 
Call we thy rhapsody infernal. 
But stupid rant, inflated fustian. 
Worthy a negro-trading Christian ; 
Worthy the Ethiopic zone 
Of Georgia and of Iverson. 



There is now published in New York City an ultra pro-slavery newspaper, 
called "The Evening Day-Book." In virulent abuse of all who advocate slave 
emancipation it has no parallel in this country. The purest and brightest char- 
acters that ever cast a lustre on humanity are the objects of its unmeasured vitu- 
peration. Humboldt, Brougham, Macaulay, Wilberforce, Clarki-'on, Buxton, Sew- 
ard, Mrs. Stowe, Ladj^ Sutlierland, Queen Victoria, are worse, in the estimation of 
its editor, than the lowest and vilest inhabitants of the Five Points. In short, 
Brown himself, this editor's type of every abomination, is an angel of light in com- 
parison with those who labor for the peaceful abolition of slavery. To show the 

173 



THE EVENING DAY-BOOK. 



dififeronce between Free and Slave States, one need only try how a paper as viru- 
lent in the oaase of Abolition as " The Day-Book " is in the advocacy of human 
bondage, would succeed in Charleston or New Orleans. In one hour from the 
notification of the establishment of such a print, the corpse of its publisher would 
be swinj^ring; from the 2^ole of liberty, his types and press in the Mississippi or 
Cooper River, or fused in the smoking ruins of his dwelling or office. Something 
of this kind, we believe, took place a few years back, in the case of a Mr. Lovejoy, 
of Alton, in the Free State of Illinois. 

So much for liberty and freedom of discussion in the South. So much for the 
principles of " The Evening Day-Book." ]'^,vcuing Day-Book ! Ye gods, what a 
name I Evening Night-Book, Palpable Darkness, Pitchy Combustion, Burning 
Lava, Friend of T\Tanny, Advocate "ftf Oppression, Light Extinguisher, or any 
other title significant of sin, bondage, bitterness, barbarism, gloominess, miirkiness, 
and death, would more accurately describe the character of this shameless pe- 
riodical. Yet, strange to say, Messrs. Everett, Gushing, and others of the same 
order of intellect, are found, it is stated, in the number of its admirers or patrons. 
temporii ! mores ! 

Talk of freedom of the press \ There is no freedom of the press, in the highest 
sense of that terra, and tliere cannot be in the United States till slavery be abol- 
ished. Tliere is not in Philadelphia, Bo.ston, or New York a single publisher who 
(while many comnend it in the highest terms as a literary work) would dare to 
take in hand this volume for publication, from sheer and acknowledged terror of 
Southern iufl.iience. It would operate against their interests. The craft would be 
in danger. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

The two following Cantos, with other poems of an anti-slavery char- 
acter, were written soon after the murderous assault upon Mr, Sumner ; 
but, from sheer terror of Southern influence, no one durst connect his 
name with them as Publisher. They are now respectfully presented to 
the public in a shape and form corresponding with " The Burden of the 
South." 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



CANTO I. 



Analysis. — Cruelty and Treachery illustrated. — Caunibals. — Cobra di CapeUo. — 
Slave State BuUies. — Malbrook. — A mime. — Siamese Twins. — Education of 
Southern Youth. — The Tree and its Fruit. — Geograpliic Morality. — Divine 
and Common Law respecting Murder. — Chivalry, Genuine, Spurious. — Cer- 
tain Pugilists contrasted with Brooks and his Bottle-holders, K. & Co. — 
Birds of Prey.— The Pine.— The Judge.— Shjdock and Pound of Flesh.— Shy- 
lock Estimates Human Life at more tlian Ten Times the Value set upon it by 
our "Washington Daniel. — The Jew not to be excluded from Political Privi- 
leges. — Freedom of Debate illustrated by Reference to English History. — 
Southern Women. — Legree. — Our Fathers. 



I. 

Where cannibals are wanting cooks 
Or butchers, we commend one Brooks, 
A Congressman of Carolina. 
He, of the tribe of Ampliisbsena,* 
A reptile is : one bead Ms cane 
Adorns, the other wraps his brain. 
The latter, like the former, broken, 
Would, or we greatly err, betoken, 
A pan or sodered or bespread 
With heavy garniture of lead. 
The cane is of the man a part, 

* Amphisbsena — A serpent with two heads. 
12 1V7 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



Grim, rotten, blood-stained, like his heart ; 
Attendant friends are seen afield. 
With deadly weapons well concealed ; 
Each a revolver and a knife. 
To aid, if needed, in the strife. 
Our Cobra* Brooks, without a rattle, 
To raise the daring cry of battle, 
Wisely resolves to strike a blow 
Which falls unseen upon his foe. 
Like his congener — to elude 
Defence, he shoots into the blood 
His venom from behind a hood. 
But yet ^«J^like, nor music charms 
Nor eloquence his rage disarms. 
Could noblest eloquence but save 
From cruel wounds or from the grave. 
Thou, Sumner, hadst escaped those pangs 
From poison of a reptile's fangs. 
His strokes of treacherous aggression 
Our Cobra phes in quick succession,! 

* The Cobra di Capello, or hooded snake, is one of the most venomous of all 
the coluber class. Of this genus are the dancing snakes which are carried in bas- 
kets throughout Hindostan, and procure a maintenance for a set of people who 
play a few simple notes on the flute, with which the snakes seem much delighted, 
and keep time by a graceful motion of the head, erecting about lialf their length, 
aud following the noise with gentle curves, like the undulating lines of a swan's 
neck. "When the music ceases the snakes appear motionless ; but if not imme- 
diately covered up in the basket, the spectators are liable to fatal accidents. 
When it is irritated or prepared to bite, this reptile erects its body, bends down its 
head, and seems, as it were, hooded by the expanded skin of the neck, — hence its 
name. Its bite proves fatal in less than an hour. — Shaw's Lectures. 

\ According to a correspondent of the " New Orleans I'icaj'une," Brooks struck, 
in rapid succession, twenty blows or more upon the head of the fallen or disabled 
ifr. Sumner. Brook's cane, it is added, was broken in pieces by their violence. 
The animus of the man waH admitted, even by himself, "before his jury, in declaring 
that if Mr. Sumner liad been able to resist him, ho (Brooks) would probably have 
committed an act of which, to the last moment of his life, he should never cease 
to repent. This language, interpreted, means — and was so understood by every 

178 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



Till ill his raving fancy's eye 

He sees his bleeding victim die. 

To gorge his animosity. 

There are who view, in this our hero, 

A Slave State bully pederero, 

Who comes to Congress with a charter. 

To turn his fire on any quarter 

Of either House, wherever he 

Can best resort to treachery 

Against the foes of Slavery. 

II. 

Truth, honor, freedom, gallantry, 

Valor and pride and pleasantry 

And love of enterprise and wars, 

And gentle courtesy and scars, 

In fighting for their ladies fair. 

Of knights of old the pastimes were. 

Ay, strength and pomp and deathless fame, 

Were then of chivalry the aim. 

When Godfrey and the Cosur de Lion 

Within the walls of their pavillion. 

For battle donned the bright mandillion. 

But now, ye gods 1 the heart it sickens 

And every pulse in anger quickens. 

To hear men talk of chivalry 

As though they meant a rivalry 

In hazard, tuighthood, strength and toil, 

And worth, and victory, and spoil, 

one present — that he would with pistol or butcher-knife have killed ilr. Sumner. 
His repentance would, we fear, be pretty much of the same quaUty as that of an 
Irish brother-criminal, who repented — 

" Not that ho had murdered, but that he was taken /" 

179 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



When meaning nothing but a brawl 
On Congress floor or social hall 
Of steamboat, or, perhaps, hotel, 
At tinkling of a waiter's bell ! 
Or yet, some personal attack 
With treachery demoniac ! 

III. 

Ye shades of Pinckney and Calhoun ! 
Haines, Sumter, Rutledge, Marion ! 
Weep, if e'er spirits weep, to sec 
Our paragons of chivalry ! 
The scions of a hopeful State, 
Which you had made or fancied great, 
In men of talents and of worth. 
And not a little proud of birth. 
Weep at those sad arbitraments 
At which all Christendom laments, 
In kind unequalled and degree, 
As acts of fierce brutality ; 
Yet lauded much by your descendants. 
As though of valor the appendants. 
All, all's of Slavery the fruit. 
Accursed, alike in branch and root. 



0, Brooks ! thou shame of Carolina ! 
Would that thy fatherland were China! 
Say, art thou come of that ISIalbrook 
Whom Frenchmen for a gohlin took ? 
Or that old dame whom some folks feel 
So fascinating in quadrille — 
Bowing and scraping with politcMicss, 
Akin to duelling, in triteness? 
180 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



Of chivalry a scurvy mime, 

And most contemptibly sublime ! 

Nay, with such arms ! thy knife and cane — 

And Colt, and Lybian lion's skin, — 

Minus the soul once lodged within, — 

Thou must have come of overseers ! 

An ancestry of murderers ! ! 

As we are not among thy flunkeys. 

We hail thee prince among the donkeys, 

Or apes, or lower race of monkeys. 

Bad imitator of the worst — 

Of crimes and criminals accursed. 

Thou art a moral Siamese, 

A monster of dualities ; 

Twin head, twin heart, twin hand, twin mind, 

With more than aspic venom blind. 

The teachings of the overseer, 

" Brute, coward, ruffian, murderer," * 

In full perfection all appear. 

Of Southern chivalry the type — 

A star extinguished — left a stripe. 

" A calf-skin on thy recreant limbs " 

We hang, in these our deathless rhymes. 



The tree — who knows not by its fruit, 
How bitter that which from the root 



* 



This is undoubtedly severe ; but is it unmerited ? It is the voice of the pub- 
lic press, of the whole country, of the whole civilized world — not excepting a great 
number of the most vehement partisans of slavery. Here is a man who has had 
eternally on his lips the phrases chivalry, gallantry, code of honor, " passage of 
arms," &c., occupying, moreover, a position such as any man living might be 
proud of, yet guilty of an act of such "meanness, treachery, cruelty, and coward- 
ice," as would cause the instant expulsion from a club of pugilists of any of its 
members. 

181 

— - i 



BROOKS ANET SUMNER. 



Of that accursed, fatal tree — 

^Hiich we call Southern Slavery 

May spring ? The child with power to strike 

A slave, will oft with freemen pick 

A quarrel, taught to glut that will 

Which would a tyrant's vengeance seal.* 

Who has not seen in Slave State hoys 

A savage spirit that destroys 

All hope of good in future years, 

And yields a heritage of tears ? 

The sights they see, the words they hear, 

The jests at all they should revere. 

To drink, to curse, to fight, to chew, 

To gamble, and what things ensue, 

What good to shun, whdt ill to do, — 

Are lessons which a child deprave, 

Wherever we behold a slave. 

The universal law of paction 

'Tween slave and master is reaction ; 

Whatever vice a master plants 

Among his slaves, his children taints. 

Who, then, can wonder at that ire, 

That force of passionate desire, 

W^hich mark a Southern man's career? 

Constraining him to cry " 2^^^^'^^'i'^ 

Like Brooks before his judges. Ilave ye ? 

If they the consequences fear, 

Of penitentiary gear. 

* While we freely and cheerfully testify to the courteous, cordial, and manly 
bearing of Southern gentlemen, properly so called, it cannot be denied that uncon- 
trolled and irresponsible authority over slaves gives to many Southern people an 
arrogance and insolence of manner which can never be assumed with impunity 
in a country where all white men, who are citizeny, are upon a footing of politi- 
cal equality, and when the superiority, ia all other respects, if any exist, is often 
on the side of tlioso toward whom rudeness and superciliousness are exhibited. 
Hence, frequently, those fatal rencontres, so disgraceful in a civilized community. 

182 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



Not many seen like Brooks, who fain 
Would brave and reckless seem again, 
When, condign punishment removed, 
They brew anew the vengeance loved? 
Thus all base spirits most affect 
What they in practice most reject. 
Those blood-spots of assassination 
Which stain our halls of legislation, 
Are but the fruits of education, 
Or of example, — where we see, 
The fearful crime of Slavery. 



VI. 



Who fain would, under the pretence 
Of geographic influence, 
For breach of law excuse derive, 
And at men's violence connive, 
Is but the tool of tyranny, 
Unworthy notice or reply. 
Just think of this " good Master Brook ! 
Hot, hissing, valiant " bully-rook ! 
You find it in the Pentateuch. 
The law of God's moralities 
Is not, in ratio of degrees 
Of latitude, to be restricted, 
For moral guilt — the cases like — < 
Suppose from hate, to kill or strike, 
Or at the poles or at th' equator. 
Or wheresoever the Creator 
One's lot may cast : if differential 
(The if is scarcely reverential), 
Infinitessimally so. 
As moral algebraists show ; 
183 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



In common law, if you're a lawyer, 

And it concerns you as man-slayer 

To know how God and man provide 

Against the crime of homicide. 

Read — " Who with stone or wood or iron " * 

At unawares a man environ, 

And kill, are murderers decreed, 

And by the avenger's hand must bleed ; 

Ay, all who thus in hatred kill, 

Are murderers in fact and will ; 

No sanctuary can await 

Those who like you assassinate. 

And, mark the sequel. Master Brook ! 

'Tis what you ought not overlook, 

'Tis blood alone can purge the land 

That is by murderers h\ood-stained ; 

And that the blood of those like Cain, 

Who have, in malice, brethren slain. 



VII. 

A gallant man resolved to fight 

In some good cause, or seeming right, 

Would only one of equal might 

Encounter — seeing him prepared 

With time and means to fend and ward. 

Good Master Brook ! such man is Layard, 

Sans peur et sans rcprochc, like Bayard, 

And such a man is Cassius Clay, 

Who neither seeks nor fears a fray, 

A physical and moral hero, 

Whose courage never sinks to zero, 

* Seo Book of Numbers, chap. 35 ; also Blackstono's Commoutaries. 
184 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



Nor througli a gutta jpercha cane 

Ascends to liquefy the brain.* 

But, oh ! our Nqrman blood revolts 

At butcher-knives and pocket " Colts." 

Clear stage, no favor, no foul play, 

Was with our ancestors the way 

To put an end to their disputes, 

Yet not with claws or teeth, like brutes. 

Better the mode of Spring and Langdon,f 

Men stout in principle and tendon — 

Of Yankee Sullivan and Hyer — 

Than thine, our Carolina squire ! 

They scorned to strike at unawares 

Non-combatants, or men in years. 

We neither method would approve, 

Our creed's a creed of peace and love ; 

Or, if it vary in degree, 

'Tis Phineas Fletcher's to a T.J 

Join, Senor Brooks ! in camisados, 

And (/ue7-)-illa-\i\i.e passados ; 

Creep forth, assassin-like, in j^ctto, 

And use the villanous stiletto ! 

Yea, go beyond them all. Why not ? 

Better thy teachers in slung-shot ! 

* Retaining our similitude of the Amphisb(Bna, we may illustrate the liquefaction 
and evaporation of our hero's courage by comparing the double cranium with 
that chemical apparatus of Messrs. Dulong & Petit, which consists of two up- 
right glass tubes, connected at their bases by a horizontal tube of smaller dimen- 
sions. Since a free communication exists between the two tubes, mercury poured 
into the one will rise to the same level in the other, provided the temperature bo 
the same in both tubes. 

f Spring and Langdon, well-known English pugilists, possessed, besides physi- 
cal strength and endurance, often the attributes of a brute, not a few other quali- 
ties deemed always respectable. 

^ Phineas Fletcher's to a T. " Let us pray the Lord that we be not tempted," 
said Simeon. " And so I do," said Phineas ; " but if we are tempted too much, 
why let them look out — that's all." — Unck Tom^s Cabin, p. 273. 

185 



BROOKS AND SUJfNER. 



And in the House or in the Senate, 

Show all that's of the ruffian innate. 

Bring, doughty champion ! into vogue 

The fighting tactics of the Thug. 

Had Sumner rallied from those blows, 

Struck and incited by his foes. 

And struggled to defend his life, 

Thy knife, sweet Brooks ! had ceased the strife, 

And made our halls of legislation 

Thy shambles of assassination. 

Good Master Brook, to such as you 

And Kcitt and Edmundson are due — 

And R e — men of vulgar grit, 

Such modes of arfjument and fisjht. 



Ay, K. & Co., in fierce averment. 

Would keep both Houses in a ferment, 

Invoking Brooks, as of the class 

Of heroes, like Leonidas, — 

And every strait which checks the free, 

Thy glorious pass, Thermopylae ! 

And whercso blood h foulbj spilt, 

A more than sanctified Glen Tilt ! 

Some birds there are which soar on high, 

And softly glide 'tween earth and sky, 

That with unerring wing they may 

Swoop down upon a living prey ;* 

And some are of that vulture kind, 

Which, save in carnage, never find 

Quam facile accipiter saxo sacer, ales ab alto, 
Conseqiiitur pennis, sublimem in niibe columbara. 
Comprcssamque tenet, pedibiisqiie cvisccrnt uncis ; 
Turn cruor et vulsiu labuntur ab sethoro, pliim;c. 

ViROiL, yEndd, II. 721. 

18G 



BROOKS AND SmiNER. 



The smell and rottenness and taste 
Which suit them for a full repast ; 
And some are harbingers of Avar, — 
Eapacious, cruel, which from far 
Their quarry see in middle air, 
And slay and lacerate it there. 
Our K. & Co., of Congress Hall, 
Combine the qualities of all, 

IX. 

Three hundred dollars as the price 
Of wounds and bruises, may suffice 
To turn small brool'S into a flood 
Of wrath and violence and blood. 
Oh, righteous judge ! oh, second Daniel ! 
Is this the fine of our Nathaniel ? 
A man of feeling, " without guile," 
But simply with intent to kill ! 
Oh, learned, wise, and noble judge ! 
Devoid of favor, fear, or grudge. 
Thy views of mercy, sans distortion, 
Should season justice " in proportion."* 
'Twill as a precedent be pleaded. 
That as a judge thou hast not heeded 
The time, the place, the men, the cause, 
The mode, the instruments, the laws; 
And many a crime by thy decree 
Will find defenders and a plea. 
Can a few dollars thus make good 
The shedding of a Statesman's blood ? 
A judge most reverend and upright, 
In legal knowledge exquisite ; 

* See Merchant of Venice. 
187 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



Shylock would have his pound of flesh, 
Raw, bleeding, quivering, and fresh, 
Nearest the region of the heart. 
Nor with his forfeit-bond would part. 
For ten times all his debt's amount 
Paid on Antonio's account ; 
But Brooks, more wisely, in revenge. 
On hlood., not fiesh, his case would hinge ; 
That hlood of animals the life is,* 
Of Jew and Christian the belief is. 
Sbylock ! inexorable dog — 
Fit member of the synagogue 
Of hell ! the difference between 
Thee and our Christian Nazarene 
Was this, that thou didst value more 
Thy pound of flesh by half a score 
Times X f than he who has the cause. 
The blood of Sumner, by our laws 
Assessed. Was B. J. N. his ruler ; 
Was he in anywise controller. 
And by the process of traduction. 
From Shylock's case conveyed instruction 



X. 

Comes it to this, alas ! alas ! 
That of the stock of Barabbas, 
" An Ebrew Jew " should dare arise 
And side with such atrocities ? 
Nor yet be with resistless might 
Cast like a vampire into night ? 

* Tho blood 13 tlio life, Deut. xii. 23 ; see also Gen. ix. 4 ; Lev. xvii. 1 1, 14, 
f Three thousand Venetian ducats of exchange are equal to $2,888.40. Tho 
letter X is hero used as the numeral for ten. 

188 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



Thus Eubek in intemperate haste 
A baneful principle expressed, 
But soon as reason had renewed 
Her empire o'er him, he pursued 
A train of argument more just, 
And rights of parliament discussed 
In language spirited, but free 
From ire and inconsistency. 
" None should," said he, " the Jew exclude, 
Who hold that men are all one blood — 
Or if not one, be it confessed, 
The Jew is equal to the best 
Of human types — his every grace, 
His noble lineaments of face. 
His talents (penal bands removed). 
His port by civil rights improved. 
His caution, shrewdness, tact combined — 
His every quality of mind 
And body — fit for peace or war, 
For commerce in particular, 
For science, art, and of the schools, 
That knowledge least acquired by fools, 
All point him out as who should be 
Free in a land where all are free ; 
Free in a land of free debate, 
With every right inviolate. 
It should, withal, admitted be, 
That we to him civility, 
And Christian light and liberty, 
And truth, and hope, and faith divine — 
Owe all ; all, therefore, should combine 
To cause that he, despite his creed, , 
In civil polity be freed 
From all restrictions which efface 
189 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



His equal rights to power and place. 
Who Philo's learning would refuse, 
Or thine, Josephus, thine not choose 
To honor, as b}' nation Jews ? 
Or Soult, Massena, Mendelssohn, 
Or D'Israeli, both sire and son ? 
Or David's, Braham's, Rachel's arts, 
In painting, song, dramatic parts ? 
Or Rothschild's, first of financiers 
In either of our hemispheres ? 
Or Solomon's magnificence. 
Without excess or vain pretence ? 
Or thee, superb Montofioro, 
Beloved alike by Whig and Tory ? 
Or all we once possessed of thine, 
Mellifluous rebel, Benjamin ? 
Nor is nor yet deserves to be 
Himself among the great and free." 

XI. 

Where is that freedom of debate 
Which should characterize a State, 
A great and sovereign State like ours, 
Among the first of human powers ? 
Where is that cry of privilege 
AVith which the Commons met their liege 
When Hampden, Hollis, Pym and Strode 
Against that haughty monarch's code 
Of right divine, dared to decree 
Debate, in parliament, as free ? 
Not the mere Avatchword of a faction, 
Evoking violent coaction, 
But of true liberty the test. 
And of our fathers' gifts the best ; 
190 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



A just, inalienable right, 

For which they were prepared to fight — 

Life, fortune, honor, all to plight. 

If Brooks, expelled (as all agree 

He ought, and doubtless soon will be),* 

Should be to Congress re-elected, 

And b)^ that body e'er respected, 

Then welcome every ruffian breach. 

On boasted liberty of speech ; 

Be Sumner's wise and honored head 

With wounds and bruises overspread, 

In chains suspended from a rafter 

To move his peers to shouts of laughter ; 

Our law, authority, and rules 

The sport and mockery of fools, 

Our evil good, our good be evil. 

And all surrendered to the devii. 

XII. 

If women are far better taught 
Than men, 'tis naught to wonder at ; 
Our Northern mothers in the South, 
And Southern mothers in their youth. 
Adopting oracles of truth — 
The sacred Scriptures — with their leaven 
Their daughters' minds exalt to heaven ; 
Their vigilance removes from view 
Whatever would the soul imbue 

* Brooks is indeed expelled, for the good of his country, by a fiat to which all 
must submit ; but, in that he had not been expelled the House of Representatives 
by a unanimous vote of that body, and that ho was re-elected one of its members ; 
and that his murderous violence seemed, from the presentation to him of so many 
fancy walking-sticks, approved of and applauded by a number of Southern peo- 
ple, we find one of the moat melancholy instances upon record of the blind fury 
of faction. 

191 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



Witli the foul elements of vice — 
Pride, passion, envy, prejudice ; 
And hence it is, whixt cannot fade, is 
As much admired in Southern ladies 
As any on the globe beside. 
Where virtue, honor, truth, abide, 
And beauty, marking every feature 
In strict congruity with nature ; 
And education, lending charms 
To all that clime or virtue warms 
Into perfection of that growth 
Which nothing more can add to youth, 
Or in maturity or age 
Our love and reverence more engage. 



Ah, who can tell how many a slave 
Is saved from ruin and the grave, 
W^hat tears are dried, and stopped what cries, 
By gentle woman's sympathies ? 
If you an Eva or St. Clair, 
The latter doubtless far more rare, 
Or Mrs. Selby find, — conclude 
That there is love and gratitude. 
Cassies and Prues in shape of woman, 
Legrees and Ilaleys are more common 
The men among ; not our Legree, 
His type, perhaps, in infamy 
Is found, in kind, not in degree ; 
His wife and children dreaded sore 
His wrath, nor ventured to implore 
That he for mercy's sake forbear 
His negroes' flesh to brand and tear ; 
192 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



But, with exceptions, ■woman is 

The only hope from this abyss, 

This hell on earth, this prodigy 

Of fraud and gross iniquity. 

But boys, corrupted from their birth, 

Are, like their slaves, enchained to earth, 

And slaves or tyrants will remain — 

Tyrants to slaves, or slaves to gain. 

In either case there are exceptions 

Which clash not with our just conceptions, 

But would elucidate the rule, 

And doubts forever disannul. 



We would not slaves at once set free — 
We advocate indemnity. 
Call a convention of the world — 
Let freedom's banners be unfurled. 
Encourage vast colonization. 
Extend the fruits of education — 
With one great impulse, one and all 
The Christian nations should recall 
The sons of Afric to their home. 
Wherever they may chance to roam ; 
Then send the Gospel's glorious sound 
To all the nations far and. round. 
Uniting North, East, West, and South 
In proclamation of the truth, 
Till Jew and Gentile all agree 
In faith, love, truth, and equity. 

XV. 

Ah, may that blood which trickled down 
From the beloved and honored crown 
13 193 



BROOKS AND SUMNER. 



Of spotless Sumner, prove the seed, 
The taUsnian of Freedom's creed ; 
A pledge that we are all sincere, 
In every effort, ever}' prayer, 
That every people, equally 
Create, should be forever free. 

XVI. 

Prosper, kind Heaven ! fair freedom's cause ; 
Defend her ways, perfect her laws, 
Till every land with ours unites 
To claim inalienable rights 
For Afric's sons ! till they and all 
Attain the highest pinnacle 
Of human happiness, nor cease 
To reap the fruits of joy aud peace. 
104 



BROOKS AND BURLINGHAME, 



Analysis. — Cry for more Blood. — The Tiger's Rage, impotent against Imputations 
of Cowardice, Quixotic, &c. — Its Natural Fruit. — Punchinello. — Pat at Don- 
nybrook contrasted with Brooks. — Premonitory Raps. — Humbug. — Fear of 
Assassination. — Canadian Laws. — Conclusion. 

I. 

Our bravo, Broots, must have more blood 

To wasb away the crimson flood 

Of Sumner's life, which stains his hands, 

And as a damning witness stands 

Of coward treachery and crime, 

The tiger's rage, the serpent's slime. 

With human blood who tries his hate 

To cool, becomes insatiate ; 

Just like a hon, if it haps 

A single drop should 'dew his chaps, 

He sniffs it in the tainted gale, 

And all its essence would inhale 

To glut his every appetite 

Of taste, touch, hearing, smell, and sight. 

" Out, out, d d spot," our hero cries ; 

" Who says I am a coward, lies ! 
And, curse him ! by this hand he dies. 
Of blood I reck not, but the stain 
Which on mine honor must remain, 
If I cannot efface the dye 
Of cowardice and treachery 
195 



BROOKS AND BURLINGHAME. 



With wliicli they seek my name to smirch, 

Both in the State and in the Church, 

In every section of our hind, 

On every sea, on every strand. 

In every quarter of the world ' 

Where'er our banner is unfurled." 

II. 

Good Master Preston Bully-rook ! 

He must the imputation brook 

Of murder in no small degree, 

And cowardice and treachery ; 

Nor can he be pronounced as brave 

By any but an arrant slave, 

Who seeks like thee to take a life 

By pistol, cane, or butcher-knife. 

Suppose you now should Burlinghame, 

With sword or rifle, kill or maim. 

You stand no better than before, 

/. e., a craunching, foaming boar, 

Determined only on revenge 

On all within thy savage swinge. 

If thou, good sir, will be too froward. 

Like Codrington in fight untoward,* 

To every man who calls you coward, 

And proves, componere sic eram, 

Promts brave mm, with " laches "\ in buckram^ 

Thou'lt have more enemies to fight 

Than any other errant knight, 

Since in Mambrino's battered casque 

La Mancha's hero found a mask 

* Codrington of Navarino memory, 

f For a definition of "/ac//e," see French Dictionary. 

196 



BROOKS AND BURLINGHAME. 



More suited to his crazy brain 

Than all the armories of Spain 

Could furnish. Sii", there is dependence 

Between more blood and more repentance ; 

And sure as cause precedes event, 

Will crime draw on its punishment. 

Whate'er one sows must needs take root, 

And yield its kind in leaf and fruit. 

Do think of this, good Master Brooks ; 

it is recorded in those books 

Which you may find and read at home, 

Or wheresoever else you roam. 



In seeking cause for the duello, 
You act the part of Punchinello, 
That blustering, swaggering, stage-struck fellow, 
Semper armatus ut pro hello. 
When Pat would act the bully-rook 
On his own ground, at Donnybrook, 
He threatened any man to whale 
Who dared on his bedraggled tail 
Of coat to tramp, with naked foot, 
Or touch with stick, or press with boot ; 
Yet less infuriate far than thou, 
Pat ne'er would have sought a row. 
Would ne'er have aimed a treacherous blow 
At any man not so offending. 
Nor skilled with weapons in contending — 
Would not a man, when sitting down. 
Belabor on his naked crown 
While o'er his papers lowlj' bending. 
Nor would he quietly have stood 
To see a peaceful man with blood 
197 



BROOKS AND BURLINGIIAME. 



And wounds and bruises covered o'or, 

A weltering victim, on that floor 

Of Congress, where, as Senator, 

As Statesman, and as Orator, 

He won renown,* without some aid — 

Not caring if a myriad 

"With hostile thoughts such victim viewed, 

Or Avhat to him (Pat) had ensued. 

But bully Brooks, with Congress flail, 

Like Satan swinging folded tail, 

Strikes right and left and fast as hail 

Vicarious blow.s,f sans provocation. 

Not Sumner's noble, honored head, 

More to defile than gi'ieve, degrade 

The head and heart of this great nation ; 

Thus making us with foreign powers 

A proverbed land of brutes and boors ! 

Pray, mention not thy warning taps. 

Thy smart premonitory raps, 

Designed to put men on defence; 

'Tis all a lying, vain pretence! 

Revolting to our common sense. 

No, no, good sir ! not such thy practi(i[ucs. 

Or we mistake thy fighting tactics ; 

The bottle-holders by thy side 

Had helped, if thou for help hadst cried. 

Thy terrors lest a foe should rush 

To take thy life from every bush 

* Soc the note on Mr. Sumner, at tlie end. 

f Vicarious blows. We doubt if Senator Butler considers himself under obli- 
gations to his " gallant relation ! ! " for this unheard of outrage. 

108 



BROOKS AND BURLINGHAME. 



'Tween Waslnngton and Buffalo, 
Or any course you chose to take 
Along the coast or o'er a lake, 
To meet a brave, mistaken foe, 
Proves you, methinks, more fond of life 
• Than eager for a mortal strife. 

Like woman stooped to shame and folly,'* 

Thou, ill-starred Brooks, shouldst wish to die, 
To sink the names of coward and bully, 

Which, living, thou canst never fly. 
The neutral and impartial soil 
Of Canada may yield a coil 
Of rope, not by the law of Lynch, 
Thy weasand pipe to stretch and pinch, 
But such as judges and a jury 
Enforce without or hate or fury 
Against those miscreants whose Avill 
Is prone a brother's blood to spill. 
To take the life they cannot give. 
And cause society to grieve 
For men with whom their utmost weight 
Is but a feather in the freight 
Of worth. Pray do, good Brooks, give o'er, 
And let us hear that name no more 
But as the memory of a dream. 
Too sad, too horrible to name ! 

* Like woman, &c. This quatraiu is an imitation from Goldsmith. 
199 



THE HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

The author of tliese poems lias not tlie honor of a personal 
acquaintance with Mr. Sumner, and has never, save once, at the 
Cooper Institute, in 'New York, seen or heard him. It is, how- 
ever, evident to any one who reads or listens to Mr. Sumner's 
speeches and lectures, that he belongs to the first class of orators 
and statesmen. His orations and tractates on State affairs seem 
to us more scholarly and luminous than those of any other mem- 
ber of Congress. He is one of those who " bring knowledge 
from afar." In most apposite and copious illustrations, he lays 
art and science under contribution. He is profoundly versed in 
law, history, and philosophy, a good classical scholar, and in 
modern languages of no ordinary attainments. Ilis industry 
is marvellous, his energy and perseverance are indomitable. He 
is, in the whole curriculum of Congressional duties, more and 
better than a cyclopsedist ; and, better still, his moral character 
is unimpeached and unimpeachable. 

Among the heaviest blows ever struck upon human bondage, 
were, assuredly, those that recoiled upon it from the defence- 
less head of Mr. Sumner through the ruffian violence of Brooks. 
They have also recoiled, with terrific force and most righteous 
and significant retribution, upon Brooks himself, as well as upon 
his abettors and friends. They hava raised up thousands and 
tens of thousands of enemies against slavery among those who 
had previously acquiesced in it, or were utterly indifferent about 
it. They have had, moreover, the effect of arousing — after his re- 
covery from their consequences — to efforts almost superhuman, 
the powers and faculties of Mr. Sumner himself, who, it must 
be admitted, is one of the ablest, most successful, and uncompro- 
mising adversaries of slavery, and one of the most eloquent 
advocates of human rights. 

200 



THE HOK CHARLES SUMNER. 



That the conspirators now on trial, or others of their frater- 
nity, were preparing to assassinate Mr. Sumner, scarcely admits 
of a doubt. He was, with the exception, perhaps, of our mur- 
dered President, more feared and hated by rebels and rebel sym- 
pathizers than any other distinguished person, and was certainly 
the most formidable enemy they had ever encountered on the 
floor of Congress. The blood poured out from his honored head 
upon the altar of his country was the first great sacrifice of that 
kind ofiered up, in the national temple, to the idol of the South- 
ern Moloch. Mr. Sumner was at once recognized by all Chris- 
tendom abroad as the earliest Congressional martyr to the cause 
of negro emancipation. But such were the power and influence 
of his enemies at home, that a fine oi three hundred dollars was 
considered, by the Judge who passed sentence upon his assail- 
ant, a sufiicient punishment for the crime ! If Brooks had 
been duly amerced for that great ofl'ence against human life and 
freedom of debate, we should not, perhaps, have now to deplore 
the horrible assassination that fills the world with mourning. A 
daily ducking at a public pump and an occasional public flagel- 
lation at a cart-tail, for a series of months or years, would de- 
prive all attempts at assassinations of the ideal romance and 
patriotism of that most dastardly and atrocious sort of murder. 

We do not always agree with Mr. Sumner, especially on cer- 
tain points touching his views of the present policy of England 
in our national affairs. Honest, and able, and kind-hearted, and 
conscientious as they unquestionably are, Mr. Sumner, Mr. 
Greeley, and other eminent men of their way of thinking, are, 
we are persuaded, unwarrantably severe on the Palmerston 
ministry. 

True it is, indeed, that the sympathy of the English nobility, 
generally, and of others of the higher classes of England, with 
the rebel slave-owners of the South, is most aggravating and 
offensive to every loyal American, every friend of free institu- 
tions, every unprejudiced and right-minded man in both hemi- 
spheres, as well as most inconsistent with England's former pro- 

201 



THE HOX. CHARLES SUMNER. 
_ ^ _ ^ 

fessions of hostility to liuman bondage. But then we must 
remember that we have the great mass of British subjects on our 
side ; and that many of the most distinguished in that empire, 
and a majority in the British Parliament, are at argreement with 
the Administration and the royal familj', in the matter of refus- 
ing to acknowledge the rebel States among free and independent 
nations. 

It is difficult to account for the prejudice of so many in Eng- 
land, Ireland, and Scotland, in favor of the Southern Confeder- 
acy so-called. It is, indeed, characteristic of a brave, generous, 
and heroic people, to admire heroism in others, and to have al- 
waj's, during a conflict between two parties — if unequal in 
strength — some sympathy for the weaker. "We never see two 
individuals engaged in light, and for neither of whom we had 
any previous predilection, without throwing our wishes and 
sympathies into the scale for the less powerful, with a view of 
equalizing the chances of battle. But there are, on the otlier 
hand, so many countervailing considerations which should dis- 
pose us to desire the extirpation of human slavery, that we are 
induced to regard as unchristian, inconsistent, and unpardonable 
in freebbrn Britons, any sympathy whatever with the upholders 
and propagandists of that abominable system. 

Mr. Sumner's remonstrances with British statesmen, how 
greatly soever be may be mistaken as regards some oithem^ are 
the strongest possible evidence of his honesty, fearlessness, and 
independence. His sojourn among them and among others 
of the leading men in Europe has given him opportunities, 
cnjo3'ed comparatively by few, of thoroughly knowing and 
respecting them ; while he had the satisfaction, in return, of 
being respected and understood by them. His distinguished 
abilities, varied accomplishments, and high reputation have, in 
short, with the knowledge of his great sufferings in a righteous 
cause, given him the entree to the best society in Christendom, 
nor has he failed in any particular to turn the privilege to good 
account. 

202 



THE CAGED STAELIKG. 



Analysis. — The Starling compared with the Human Slave. — "Can't get out." — 
Complaint. — "Wishes. — Happiness of Flying. — Choosing a Mate and Food. — 
Love. — Song of praise. — Sympathy with a Negro flogged for attending Public 
"Worship on the Sabbath. — Jailer selfish and jealous. — Jailer's Wife and 
Children. — One, a blue-eyed little Maiden, desires to hear the Starling's Song. 

I. 

The Starling, doubtless, was well fed; 
He cracked Lis seed and picked his bread, 
And drank, and could far better lave 
His body than a human slave, 
Who wants or time, or will, or water 
To pay attention to such matter. 
" But then," said he, " I can't get out," — 
His greatest misery, no doubt, — 
" I cannot choose a winged mate, 
I cannot carol, as of late, 
I scarce can move, I cannot fly. 
My body here, my thoughts on high ; 
Shall I no more behold the day 
When I shall sing my roundelay. 
And jump and hop and sing and play 
Among the boughs from tree to tree, 
As light as air and quite as free. 
No one divining whence I come. 
Or where I go, my will my home, 
203 



THE CAGED STARLING. 



My outspread plumage gayly sunuing, 
And through my toilet antics running ? 
Ah, shall I never more be able 
To choose my food at nature's table, 
Or at her fountain sweetly drink. 
And view my dearest from its brink, 
And love her too, and touch her mind. 
And love to love responsive find ? . 
When I to that blue heaven shall come, 
Which stretches far beyond her home, 
I then my love may view askance, 
Enjoy the raptures of her glance, 
My gayest colors deftly prink, 
And heart to heart forever link. 



With glee of heart and note of joy, 
How happy, happy to employ 
Our tongues to praise the God of love, 
Whose glory fills the realms above, 
Fills all beneath the cheering sun, 
Beneath the stars, beneath the moon, 
Beneath the waves and all around, 
Where height and breadth and depth immense 
Proclaim his wise omnipotence, 
His goodness without let or bound. 
All works of his creative hand 
Protecting providence demand ; 
Their Keeper as their Architect, 
He only can their course perfect. 
What creatures walk, or fly, or swim, 
Earth, air, or deep, chant forth their hymn- 
Yea all, in daily strains, prolong 
Their tribute of a tuneful song. 
204 



THE CAGED STARLHSTG. 



Nor more in weal than in their woe, 
Should /rom all hearts this tribute flow. 
Shackles on tongues ! Oh, infamy ! 
The vilest fruit of slavery. 
Yet I have seen a black man stripped 
Of all his clothes, and nearly whipped 
To death, because, on Sabbath days, 
He would his Maker duly praise ! 

III. 

Vain thoughts ! these bars preclude escape 

The world, to me, is hung in crape ; 

The tree which calls me to its fruit, 

The worm, the berry, and the root, 

The seed most pleasant to my taste, 

I see afar, and stand aghast 

To think that all should thus decay, 

And as a vision pass away. 

My jailer selfish is and jealous, 

And I to please, perhaps too zealous. 

He hears my prattle and my song. 

Such songs as from a captive flow. 

The artless vocatives of woe, 

"Which only to a slave belong. 

The more to please him is my zeal 

The less disposed he seems to feel 

To grant the wishes oft expressed 

In all the heavings of my breast. 

IV. 

I make his wife and children laugh ; 
They cannot, surely, know one half 
The wretchedness I undergo. 
When I attempt to please them so. 
205 ' 



THE CAGED STARLING. 



IIow few reflect, if they should be 

A captive, exile, slave like me, 

What then would be their hidden feelings, 

Their sorrows and their soul's revealings. 

V. 

Ah, mo ! perchance that lovely child. 

With dimpled check and aspect mild, 

And sky-blue eyes and golden hair, 

Who listens to our wood-notes wild. 

By sympathy in all things led, — 

God's blessing on her gentle head ! — 

Would for my freedom gladly plead, 

If she were not withheld by fear ? 

Her feelings show in every look, 

Like silver in a crystal brook, 

As bright, yet warmed by a heart 

Whose pulses glow with hallowed flame, — 

From her 'twere bitter grief to part. 

If grief with freedom ever came ; 

But even she would plead in vain 

To break her darling's galling chain. 

I'll sing, as she desires, the song — 

The captive's song of which I've spoken— 

Although it but repeats the wrong 

By which my heart is almost broken. 

THE STARLING'S SONG. 



My native place lies far beyond 
The deep blue waters of the ocean. 

Of flight and change, alas ! too fond, 
It set my heart-strings in commotion 
206 



THE CAGED STARLING. 



To hear of this far distant shore. 
I longed to see its vast expansion ; 

Its Uberty was evermore 
Beyond my utmost comprehension. 

II. 

Time was when, flying, breast to breast, 
My love and I could all about us 

Enraptured see, and sink to rest 
"Where all was peace, within, without us ; 

But see mc now away from home, 
Within a cage's close environs — 

I feel that those who love to roam 
Will sometimes find themselves in irons. 

III. 

We cleft the air, and wing to wing 
Inhaled the balmy breeze of morning, 

Relieving oft our journeying 
With snatches of our love's adorning. 

Our spirits felt each coming change 
Of days and moons, but could not reason 

Of countless things within the range 
Of HIM who rules each time and season. 



A berry here, an insect there, 
We found as appetite would guide us, 

Nor compass nor a leader's care 
Was needed these things to provide us ; 

But all I see is now a waste, 
A solitude without enjoyment ; 

No household cares to suit my taste, 
No love, no freedom, no employment. 
207 



THE CAGED STARLING. 



V. 

If tlioii, my sweet and winsome child ! 
AVere but like me, a little starling, 

Or I like thee, my wishes Avild 
Would never seek another darling ; 

Our home, where'er that home might be, 
Like Eden, rich in every blessing, 

Would be the home of purity 
And love — caressed and e'er caressing. 

VI. 

Our dawn of hope and fount of joy, 
Kind Providence our wants supplying ; 

The life of life without alloy 
Would be the will and power of flying. 

To voice so harsh and rough as mine 
How few like thee would have attended I 

Teach me the melody of thine, 
Thy winning ways ; my song is ended. 

No, never, never shall I see 
Or taste thy fruits, sweet liberty ! 
Where are my father, sister, brother. 
Beloved children, good old mother ? 
Die here I must, and leave no token 
That this my liltle h'lart is broken .•"' 
208 



